


The Shifts

by Corny_Tyrannosaurus



Series: Love Reel [1]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Gravity Falls
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Consanguinamory, Dinosaurs, F/F, F/M, Gen, Homage, Multi, Multiple Crossovers, References to Monsterverse, Sibling Incest, Teenage Dipper Pines, Teenage Mabel Pines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2020-11-08 13:47:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 45
Words: 114,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20836478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corny_Tyrannosaurus/pseuds/Corny_Tyrannosaurus
Summary: A misterious, unknown force is changing the very heart of Time itself, and the twins are unwillingly at the eye of the storm. Plans failing, and entire realms of broken dreams falling apart, as a set of unexpected heroes tries to fight back for the sake of the whole Universe...





	1. So this is how it goes

_Dipper floats, in nameless misty skies, bewildered, naked and out of breath. But he doesn’t feel a quite suffocated, and even when he realizes the mist is chilling, he doesn’t feel any cold, neither the wetness in the wind makes him feel soaked. Instead, he just listen that voice, as he wonders how he came there and when the voice will face him. It mutters and screams aloud at same time, is almost inaudible, but deafening after all._

_“What shall be, of the once great faces? How keep building these unbearable bridges made of broken dreams? Old, rotten memories of long ago forgotten races are banding together to something transcendental, something beyond Oblivion. The Three Faceless Kings are leading loathsome armies of Meanwhiles and Neverweres, and their not-legs are ramming straight into your realm. Guard the closed breach, keep the Shotting Star and the Daughter of Cassiopea behind you, and make amends with the Screaming Island, because, when the mice gorgons put feet on your lands, no one shall stand at their masters. Wake up Pine Tree…. Wake up!…”_

Dipper woke up, screaming so aloud that his throat rasped and Mabel jumped out of the bed, both hearts pumping like race horses. The impulse of his erecting was so strong, that he simply fell out the bed tangled in the white blanket and crashed against the floor with his left elbow, screaming louder. As soon as his eyes catched Mabel going straight to him, his insane scream ceased. But he was still breathing deeply, and was hard to tell by any of them, if they looked so scared because the wild fear or their expressions or the creepy atmosphere wrapping them. Mabel, like to express something, began to touch her forehead, unable to say a word but still trying to move her lips anyway. Dipper touched his forehead, catching what she went to say, and felt the uncold cold. They stared each other for a while, trying to figurate what to say, but having the same word-stealing though about the fearsome fact.

“Is it shinnin’?” Dipper asked, still astonished, with a nervous low pitch.

“Y..yeah” Mabel answered, trying to not burst her lungs with the force of the sight that followed her answer. Suddenly, their room’s bedroom door was knocked, and they turned at it.

“Mom! Dad! Are you okay?” Cass said, audibly worried

“All fine MiniMe, just a nightmare. Go to bed, we’ll be there on a sec.” Mabel said

Then they stared each other again, still panicked.

“A call?” Dipper asked

“A call” Mabel answered.

So, unexpectedly, that weirdness, long ago gone, came back to their lives, and unsuspected to them, it was going to get worse. Out of their skies, something was conspring, something that they could never forget… Or remember.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on the Unexpected AU (edward-or-ford; Tumblr.com)


	2. Under scally hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some between the woods remembers....

“Now?” Cassie asked, impatient.

“A little further Cass” Dipper answered, seeing through the heavy camera that Soos insisted they had to use, the same last old camera they used to try to get a shot of the pterodactyl that stole Waddles, several years ago. Dipper thought it was bad luck, but in their last day on Gravity Falls in several months, he felt a special desire of make everything the most memorable possible.

Cassie was losing her temper, as it was the third attempt to have a good sight of the Floating Cliffs, far behind her. Being the last photo in Gravity Falls before going back home, it had to be perfect, it had to emulate the pureness of the ancient forest and the mighty essence of the Floating Cliffs, and, more important, it had to be enough wonderful to make Stephanie boil with jealousy. For the third time, Cassie fixed her hair with her fingers and uncovered her birthmark, and focused in have the best smile her face could show, not too creepy, but not too discreet; essentially, a happy-Cassie smile. A fast memory hit her for a moment, but was so fast to get a right glance of what exactly was. It looked important, it had to be important. She deemed as matters for another moment, and again focused in have a good smile for the photo.

Mabel, who was aside Dipper, caught what was happening, and announced by a malevolent grin, began to poke in his ribs, making him laugh hardly, almost making him throw the camera, as she said “Maybe our dearest daughter is not the one who´s not smiling right!”

“Mom! Let him take the shot, it´s getting cold out here” Cassie screamed, as she adjusted her glasses and rubbed her forearms.

Suddenly, the joyful color of her parents’ faces faded away, and was replaced by deep, silent looks of pure terror. Cassie made no noise at its sight; with no discenible just looked them, confused. A wide tear ran from Dipper´s frozen face, as she heard the stones of the forest ground being squished by deep steps of something behind her. At the moment, she caught what was going on, and her breath went fast and deep. Something growling behind her, huge and with an odd scent of syrup, rubbed against her back, delicately. She felt a hot, wet breath move her hair, at the act of smelling her, and could feel the deep staring that the creature was putting on her, as they parents could not do anything that wasn´t just hope a miracle, to hope not to see her beloved daughter disappear inside the jaws of the massive theropod which stood still behind her.

Her face turned pale as dead, as she heard clearly how the beast yawn behind her, feeling the nasty , flesh-smelling breath of the beast puffing her cold back. Again, she felt the scaly skin of the unseen beast scrapping against her back, and inside her mind, quietly, she said goodbye to her parents, assuring herself that she could be soon dead and ripped apart across the stony ground which sustained her paralized legs.

But suddenly, against any rational conclusion, the theropod make two steps back, and Cassie began to hear a deafening, but almost inaudible speech, coming from nowhere, as the things became blurry and their knees suddenly lost strength.

That second she lasted to fall felt like an Eternity for her, as she heard the instructions, every word put hardly on her mind like a tree rotted over the ground:

“_Search your marked no-mother and the could-be no-father, because your place in the Zodiac is waiting for you stand over. Make nods to the unseen and talk to the unheard, because they look and see you. The Three Faceless Kings are here, Daughter of The Shift, and the stars are in their position, is too late to fight. Sleep, Eye in the Triangle, Sleep!.._.”

Cassie´s back found its resting place above the beast´s nose, as it held her head in its place. Seconds passed, and the great beast stood quiet where it was, with its pairs of tiny claws moving with expectation. Slowly, the beast moved its backwards, enabling a sleeping Cassie to fall softly above the stony ground. Then, the theropod looked at her terrified parents, and making a soft and short roar, it turned around and lost in the depths of the forest.

Cassie opened her eyes, seeing the afternoon skies standing majesticly over the shadowed pine trees, and then, the tearful warm faces of her parents, which suddenly lost color again.

“Is it…” Mabel tried to say.

“Shinning” Dippper ended, with flat, serene voice.


	3. The Shift

The way back was silent, as silent were the woods around them. Passing the Floating Cliffs, the whole forest was covered in a dense, creepy mist, and anyone out there could swear to be hearing animalistic whisperings coming from the nearnesses, but no one was there to tell it, and no one driving over the road could pay enough attention to hear them.

Halfway in the highway, and no one inside the car had said anything. Maybe it was an unexplained fear of the unsaid things that almost happened, or maybe was the shame that Dipper and Mabel felt for expose their own daughter to the always deadly critters that roamed inside the Gravity Falls Forest, things they had to remember, no matter how much time were time outside their lives. Every few seconds, they made quick glances one each other, repeating unspoken apologies, and looking thru the back mirror, to see an unusually calmed Cassie, smiling at them in a sad way every time she caught them looking at her. Something in their eyes was deeply worrying, and she couldn´t figure what. After the emotional roller coaster that their weeks there were for all of them, after all the old friends and family they recovered, the happy farewells, and her own adventure with Stan Jr. and Lee involving height-altering crystals, she hoped that being almost eaten by a T-rex was something forgettable. But it wasn’t, and she just couldn’t find the words to tell Dipper and Mabel ‘_Hey, I’m ok, don’ feel you suck as parents_’. Something said her that their hearts were just enoughly broken for an entire lifetime, and certain things (especially the ones involving fearsome critters) maybe could be less digestible to them than before. Something said her, that their struggle to be a family was enoughly tiring for a sole person to deal with, or even two.

Anyway, the silence remained, and Cassie employed some of that quiet time in staring the collar that Grunkle Ford gave her shortly before their departure, retelling herself in her mind, the strange set of words that he chose when he gave her it before the last goodbye, “_This will protect you even when you hadn´t never been here_”. She tried to unpuzzle that a good time, without any significant advance. The metallic necklace held a shard of the infinity side die, so she could watch the endless shifting of symbols that passed every second. Having been told by Soos himself the whereabouts of the Weirdmaggedon in a night camping near the Kill Billy territories (luckily, Grunkle Ford assured that they were much friendlier after that mini-apocalypse), she recognized certain symbols belonging to aspects of the Zodiac, and wandered about what could happened if they could have defeated Bill Cipher with it, as she counted them in her mind.

_Pine Tree, that´s Dad. Sand Clock. Shooting Star, that´s Mom. Fish… Pacman-like thing? That´s definitively Grunkle Stan. Ice Bag… That must be Wendy; dang, she was so cool as Dad said she was, Haha! Funny to see Mom bothering him for that. Fork with three pikes. Butterfly. Hand with Six Fingers, Grunkle Ford! Butterfly again. Glasses? Mhmm, that´s difficult. Eye? Mhmm i don´t remember it, sure it´s nothing… Wait, Pinetree again? ooooodd. Shooting Star again!, that’s even odder. Pinetree again, Iiiiiii feel this not happens for good reasons. And the eye! This is not…_

Suddenly, she saw certain weak, blue light covering her hands near her face, and came to know, with a slapping fear, that her forehead was shinning. She was about to scream about that when she felt the sudden whiplash of the car stopping, and saw thru the mirror, how Dipper’s birthmark was shining as well as hers.

Then, he and Mabel shared a deep, fearful staring, and then saw Cassie, fully stunned. Mabel faced Dipper again, and Cassie could see how a tiny tear fell across her left cheek.

“It’s happening again Dipper! I remember it” Mabel said, terrified, as she rubbed her cheek with a hand”

“Me too, but… don’t worry Mabes, she’ll be fine, remember the collar” Dipper said, taking the hand over her cheek. “We have the plan” He reassured, with waved voice.

“She’ll be stranded here in middle of nowhere, we’ll not remember her, What if it doesn’ works?” Mabel asked, despaired. Cassie just stared them, with no idea of what they were talking about “I don’ want her to disappear forever!” Mabel cried, soaked in despair.

“She’ll be fine, I promise!” Dipper answered, kissing her forehead. Then, they looked at Cassie.

“Dad? What’s going on?” Cassie asked, terrified, as, coming from the farness, a glass cracking-like sound echoed around them. Both put their hands over her knees, breathing deeply.

“Cass, something’s gonna happen, and everything you know will change, but we’ll search for you, we promise. But you must search for us”

“What?” Cassie asked, confused.

“There’s no time to explain, but please, promise us you’ll be strong” Dipper answered, staring at hear with tearful eyes.

“I… I promise” Cassie asked, strong and serene.

“We love you Cass…” Mabel begun to say, only to be silenced by the crippling noise that acompained a blinding, intense light.

Cassie felt light as a feather, deafened by the sound of a thousand glass shards stacking one against other, and blinded by an unbearable blue and cold light. Her stomach fluttered, and every inch of her skin felt like the whole world around her simply was not there anymore. For a moment, she just floated, almost senseless, and she closed her eyes, making impossible efforts to not scream aloud, because she could´t feel air around her. A hideous, deep voice echoed across the unsettlingly vast madness, and she listened with all the attention she could give being sunken in that sudden unmotion.

“Bringing the next shift” The voice spoke, disgustingly deep, almost monstrous.

Then, The crippling sound heighted to the point of be painful and suddenly disappeared, and Cassie fell against the hard floor. She opened her eyes, terrified and slightly astonished by her paining back. She was over the left corner of the highway, in the same misty forest, but the car just disappeared, as her parents did. An echoing set of deep voices made its way across the trees, and she realized she was alone in the middle of nowhere, halfway out of the Roadkill Country.

“Mom?, Dad?” She said weakly as she put on feet. She turned around every corner, but she just saw blurred trees and an endless trail of mist, followed by gruntings, coming from between the trees. She was alone, lost and alone.


	4. The Wackiest Dream

The crickets made an intense chorus, hidden between the flowers of the garden out of the house, and the shining ball moon covered the room with a feeble light. The numerous weak Christmas spotlights adorning the room weren’t enough to opaque the bright moonlight, and, covered by a colorful blanked over the bed, two sleepy and deeply overwhelmed bodies were tangled together.

Mabel lay asleep, with her face looking at the wall, and her naked body spooned by the wet, warm body of her twin, both of them snoring weakly with a paceful, syncronized rythm. Having waited for too long for that specific night, the only night they could be alone in house, they spent it in its full potential, not hesitating in be the most noisy, tender and ravenous lovers, that their hearts and bodies pleaded they could be. And was so intense, that just having finished, they fell asleep just as they were how the sleep crept over them. Their minds drifted in the elation of having been free, at least that night, to love each other without fear or suspicion of being discovered, fueled by unsaid words they spoke one each other via every imaginable touching they made the one to the other. Early in the morning Dipper should escape into his room, before their parents arrive home, but for now, they have their own piece of the Eternity to enjoy to be together.

Suddenly, Mabel began to laugh, still sleepy. Dipper silently woke up, smiling at the sound of her laugher.

“ Not norm’ that someone’s awakin’ in a laugh” He said with low, heavy voice.

“Not normal to be tangled at the tummy of your nude sis’ Mr. Normal Man” Mabel replied, still smiling, tenderly rubbing the hands around her. “Besides, it was a funny dream”

“Didn’t you eat Smiledip before our special night again, didn’t you?” Dipper asked, raising an eyebrow but with his eyes still closed.

“Nop, that was almost regrettable, my fair bro” Mabel replied, remembering the past two months, when they threw the frig. How their parents believed the story of the raccoon was still a mystery of its own, but she reassured in the need of don’t do such things again… at least, in the kitchen. Dipper appeared to remember pretty well the incident, kissing her shoulder in response.

“So, what kind of funny was that dream?” He asked.

“It was a total wacky thing. Waaaaaacky!” Mabel replied, opening her eyes, following a short laugh. “I dreamt we were the grunkles and the grunkles were the grand-nephews. I was Grauntie Mabel, and cheeeese! I’m a pretty good monster maker when I want; I forced Soos to use sweaters made for him and he loved them! So Nephew Ford found your journals and put all crazy as you did. And then he fell in love with a spider girl named Darlene and Nephew Stan poked at him for it. And I had this underground lab and…”

“And…?” Dipper replied in a happy humor, still hoping for her to finish so he could point out about the details he thought punable, when he felt how Mabel drove her hands to her mouth, and his breath became shacky. “Mabel?” He asked, increasingly worried. Then she turned around and buried her face in his chest. He felt the wetness on her face, and cold as a spear, and he realized that she was crying in silence again.

The odd, apparently unprovoked habit began barely a few weeks ago, when she had her talk with Aiden during her Saturday detention, but he just thought it was her own insecurity about the newness of their new situation. But half a week after she did it again, in the middle of the family dinner. Their mother thought it as a hormonal girl-thing, but some details about certain things she said were… too familiar for him, and he could not even explain why. So close as a week ago, in the middle morning, just before go to school, she asked spontaneously if someone called Cassie had packed her lunch.

Dipper remembered that one especially hard, because when he asked who Cassie was, almost instantaneously she hugged him strongly and began to cry, as if a bunch of despair fell over her out of nothing. That day she didn’t go to school, and their parents took her to the doctor, suspicious of a true hormonal issue. He hoped to hear something this time, something that could say him what was going on with her; after all they had to fight for end where they were now, hold the urges of cry with her became every time harder with every new sudden sadness wave. then she spoke, and certainly, what she said caught him out of guard.

“I missed you Dip. I missed you so hard” Mabel said, with a weak voice.

“Shh,… Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere, I promise” Dipper replied, kissing her head as he shifted his arms to embrace her tightly.

“Is just… Every time it happens I just slip up and I feel so weak…” Mabel replied, waving her voice. “ I’m so sorry”.

This time, Dipper hadn’t the straightness to hold his inner sadness, and suddenly both of them were crying.

“ Crudepuns, I’m the overapologizer now” Mabel said, giving a small, unseen sad smile.

“That’s fine. Overapologizing it’s good” Dipper replied, kissing her head again, passing his fingers across her hair.

“How bad we ended our special night as a duo of crying babies” Mabel said, whispering.

“Well, technically we have still a couple of hours so…”

She lifted her head, both pairs of eyes glancing, enlightened by the moonlight. Then the passionate kisses were restarted, and the bed began to squeal again. Unexpected for them, or anyone else, out of the house, in the other side of the street, someone was watching far from the window.

Cloaked, unseen, but eerie frightful, the young crone spoke to the blurred shadow casted out by the Nothingless.

“It didn’t work, again” She said, with soft voice of pure annoyance.

“The process isn’t perfect; this universe has one of the strongest Politic Spirals I’ve ever seen. We’re dealing with a pillar in History” the blurred shadow spoke her in severe tone.

“Don’t bore me with details, you know what I want” the crone replied.

“You’ll get what you want when we get what we want. Until then, you’ll have to wait. After all, we have the whole Eternity to try” the blurred shadow said.

“Well, take me back, I don’t want to keep seeing this emetic failure anymore”, the crone replied.

Then she melted on the shadows of the ground, departing. And the night in Piedmont stood, as it should still, for another night.


	5. Mason

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There once upon a time, in a far corner of Multiverse, a girl who made herself to be called Dipper...

\- _Gravity Falls, Oregon. Planet Earth, Local Cluster. Universe 47’\, a few months ago._

_Ford walked ceaselessly around the kitchen, unsure of what to do. Stan just was laid recharged on the kitchen desk, staring at him with amused serenity, as he just stood walking around. Neither Ford nor he had decided yet what to do, but at least for Stan, everything was perfectly clear. Over the chairs of the kitchen, holding hands over the table, their heartbroken teenaged grandnieces were sitting, completely silent._

_“You… Are you completely conscious about what are you asking us, right?” Ford asked Dipper, having stopped his march as she just stared at him, in submissive confidence. Her glance was enough answer for him, and he resumed his endless walking around the kitchen. Judging for her half dirty clothes and her purple pat, patched with pink yarn, they were out of options. Ford didn’t feel any comfortable about what was asked to him, but he knew and felt, that denning her request could mean the most regrettable, irresponsible and counter nature betraying he could´ve do in his entire life, and for a man who had walked the multiverse, such a thing was fearfully serious._

_“Your parents, Shermy… They won’t talk us anymore” Ford replied as he was walking, squeezing his left fist against his chin. “Our entire family will cast all of us out…” Ford turned to look Mabel, who hadn’t said a single word since they came, about an hour ago. She stood looking at the table, holding her sister’s hand, in a shameful way. Stan stood looking at him, this time judgmentally._

_“Do ya fear be rejected by family, don’ ya?” Stan asked, putting out his fez._

_“It is worth of fear?” For replied him, again having stopped his walking._

_“I know where’s my family right know. If Shermy can’t with that, I don’ mind” Stan said, turning around his fez with his finger, stopping to look at Mabel, who turned her face at him, smiling him sadly._

_“Then, what we say everyone here Stan?” Ford asked, lowering his hand out of his chin._

_“You’re joking? They’ve saved this town God knows how many times, do ya believe they’ll say something?. Besides, here even the woodpeckers can get married, don’t say me this is weirder”_

_Ford grunted aloud, passing his hands across his face; he just decided what to do, and for a moment, everything he knew could be gone forever passed across his mind._

_“I just have a condition” Ford told Dipper._

_“What” Dipper asked, in low voice._

_“You will end your Journal, you must have something to do as you wait her until summer”._

_Dipper and Mabel practically jumped out of her chairs to hug him tightly, as they let silent sobs come out, and Stan came to hugged them from behind, rubbing their heads._

_They endured in such embrace around a minute; judging for the straightness, Ford quickly concluded they need it._

_“Ehm… Girls, time to go for the luggage, I’m getting hungry” Stan said, when everyone heard his stomach grumping. Everyone laughed, tasting a little of the old times they’ve lost. So, they unknotted, and Mabel and Stan were quickly out the Shack, for the luggage. Dipper was in her way when Ford put his hand in her shoulder, and she turned to him._

_“Dipper I… I’m sorry. If I had known what you were happening I…” Ford began to say._

_“Don’t worry, anyway I had to tell someone but you know, this is not a ‘right thing for a family’ “ Dipper replied, citing her mother._

_“I just want to tell you, that you and Mabel will have a home here as long as we live, I promise Dipper…” Ford replied, as Dipper stopped him, hugging him again”_

_“Mason” Dipper said._

_“What?”_

_“Call me Mason from now onwards. I don’t want to be Dipper anymore”_

_“Right, then… You’re in home now, Mason” Ford said, squeezing her arms as he unknotted. Mason smiled him, knowing that, from now onwards, they had a home…_

\- Gravity Falls, Oregon. Planet Earth, Local Cluster. Universe 47’\, Present

The cloudy midday sky was in his apogee, over the green fields of the cemetery. From the far, the aloud callings of the deer herds and the _Ceratosaurus_ packs resounded across the entire valley; interestingly, their mating seasons matched almost perfectly. The soft winds waved over the long grass, and not so far, one could hear the merry laughs of the Valentinos, probably for the usual reasons.

A recent gravestone stood blanker than the others, still frosted. From the entrance of the cemetery, a tall girl with short, curly brown hair covered by a purple pat patched with pink yarn walked in its direction. She was wearing a brown skirt, black pantyhose and blue coat, under which was a sky-blue shirt, badly buttoned. Every step of her dark blue boots approached her to her destiny, as a low ache began in her tummy. She was holding a few flowers from the deepest part of forest, whose stems she stretched as she neared the gravestone.

FInnaly, she reached the grave, put on knees, and changed the old flowers of the handmade glittered jar for the new ones she brought. Then she read the inscription, and gulped aloud.

_Fiddleford H. McGucket_

_Beloved Friend, Father and Husband_

_1968-2017_

_“thingamadiculous robomajigs to all!!”_

She stared at it almost without blink, and for a moment she heard in her mind, the same old, merry old man saying those words smiling widely at her, so she whispered, trying to gain straightness to do what she went to do. She had to do this, she wanted to do this.

“H-Hi! I’m here at last. I know I got my time but I and Mabel had to… go for the long way around, you know” Mason said, letting out a little chuckle. “It’s funny. When we came here the first time I never imagined that I could count a mad ex-scientist genius among my friends but… well, here we are” she continued, whispering again. “You’ll glad to know that the sap dinosaurs we rescued the last time the town was almost destroyed are thriving. Seriously! How many Armageddons for such a little town” She said, chuckling again. “I’ll have to make a new account of the _Ceratosaurus _populations today; Multibear said he found a half-eaten buffalo near the cliffs” She said in a false disgusted voice, and then thought in the big bomb new. “I… and Mabel are,… _together _now…” Mason said with a weak smile, wondering what he could’ve thought about. “… and she is doing fantastic at college! She got a full scholarship for her fake taxidermy project; you can imagine how Grunkle Stan mocks me about”.

Mason then sat, more comfortably, as she put her hands together over her legs, feeling the emotions coming. “Mabel said I had to do this, you know, the ‘Come-and-have-the-waving-off-talk’ thing. You could say I’m getting crazy as you…” Mason said, then chuckled a third time, breathing deeper. “But she never said how this feels in fact and I’m not prepared at all to what this feels really and I’m so sorry for don’t be there when you passed away neither the funeral and…”She said very quickly before finally burst over the weight of her feelings, putting her hand over her mouth and beginning to cry, trying in vain to hold the sobs as she squeezed her eyes, finally throwing a raspberry and a bitter curse. “ And… I just can’t, not yet. There’s so much over me now, and I wonder where my straightness gone. I must be strong, for Mabel, and for me, and for everyone who doesn’t hate me now that the bomb blew up…” She said, again, in a very quick way. She whispered again, very aloud, before keep talking to the unresponsive gravestone. “… Stan says that isn’t really so bad being casted out of the family, that I must focus in what I want to do, but I remember the faces of Mom and Dad and… I-I think you must have more experience or at least you could’ve known what to say…”

Suddenly, she felt the weight of a hand over her right shoulder, and turned her head to see. Aside she was her favorite redhead in the world in a black jacket, giving her an apologetic glance. Mason quickly passed her hands over her eyes and put on feet.

“Wendy! How surprise, I-I…” Mason tried to say.

“Will you keep talking or will you gonna greet me as it must be?” Wendy said, smiling serenely. Mason fell over her extended arms trying to hold the sobs but failing again, so giving another loudy course.

“… I not even know why I’m crying now! So stupid!…” She said, with her chin stuck on Wendy’s shoulder.

“Hushh, i’ts ok. You’ve passed for a lot of things, it’s nice to see you’re fine here, at least” Wendy replied, rubbing her friend’s back.

“I hate my feelings, always getting me on trouble” Mason said, more calmed down.

“It’s the funny of life girl, get used to it” Wendy said. Mason laughed, and then both girls turned apart. “I don’t think the ol’ McGucket will get upset if I take this girl away for a moment to share a drink with her friend” Wendy said, looking at the gravestone.

“No, sure he won’t” Mason said, smiling.

“Cool! then let’s go, my truck’s near” Wendy replied, taking her keys out of her pants’ pockets.

A few minutes later, Mason and Wendy were inside the truck, right to the town, as they talked about their respective whereabouts.

“So, you got the truck, for contractual instance you got the ownership of the company and then did you became the truck-mistress of the whole Portland Country in less than a month?… wow, that’s ‘The Huge Price’ in Stan’s words” Mason recalled the Wendy’s story, still incredulous. Wendy couldn’t resist the surprised face of Mason and throw a hard laugh, stretching the maneuver.

“Chill out girl! When you say it like that even sounds ridiculous” Wendy said, still laughing. Mason smiled back; it was Wendy’s turn to inquire about her. “So, how’s this whole thing going on with Mabel? Wendy asked in her ubiquous chill way. Instantly, Mason’s cheeks got little in color, so Wendy quickly got the fact of how true was their mutual feelings.

“I dunno, do you really want to know about that? I understand that’s a wacky-taboo like thing so…” Mason replied, unsure if talk to her previous crush about such universally uncomfortable things could make her feel comfortable. But Wendy’s undaunted smile instantly reminded her how open she could really be, and that, despite the losses, they still had people in which trust. “Pretty well… Oh, what the hell, Damn! I’m so… happy! I never knew that could feel so… Free” Mason said, staring briefly at the forest around them, with a discrete smile. “And the town… We can walk for this streets and not be judged or pointed or… We’re just so free here”.

“Do you love her don’t you?” Wendy asked, almost in a proud way.

“Yes… Dang, yes! I know is a twisted thing but is true, for her and for me. I-I have no words for the thing I feel for her and… Sorry , hard-chewing thing” Mason stopped herself, almost being on the verge of talk about their less public interactions.

“No prob girl, obviously you two are happy together… In a weird way, but hey! How many people can say the same?” Wendy said, silently recalling her not few failures in the matters. “Then, how do you manage the distance? She’s out the whole semester”.

“Well, we make vidchats almost daily and the life in Gravity Falls puts me really busy. When Grunkle Ford and Grunkle Stan go on their travels I get in charge of the investigation and the forest guarding. Of course, I have help of the sprites, and Grenda and Multibear are very good rangers for their own but after the madness of two years ago we just haven’t enough hands for everything we have to handle”. Mason said, recalling in her mind the whole new issues that they had to keep on check.

Since the introduction of the Taurkind to the town (A pledge of Mayor Cuttlebiker for no more hydrants destroyed) to the predatorian dinosaurs which every oftenly wandered over the territories of the Enchanted Forest, the things in Gravity Falls after their last emergency became dangerously weirder. Things like the Grenmoblins fighting the youngster Ceratoraurus or a sort of ravenous black, furry beasts with a whole lot of teeth in a whole lot of mouths, terrorizing the Sprite Glades, were everyday more common, and Mason felt certain vibe of the old, denser times where there were much more wild beasts roaming fierce; when the natives lived in the valley, thousands of years ago. The mixture of the weirdness of town and the weirdness of the wild lands around was a hard thing to deal with, so protect the town from the supernatural threats became a very serious thing, one that the townsfolk had no option to ignore anymore. Equally, protect the supernatural creatures from the outer world became a duty for all the involved, one to which even Mabel herself got faithful. In less than a year, Mason had turned herself into the handled King Kong of her own Skull Island.

At the moment, Mason’s Wookie-Tookie sounded, and the always melodic voice of Grenda resounded.

“Grenda here! , Mason where’re you?” Grenda asked, in her high-pitched fearful tone that instantly got Mason into the new of a serious thing. Immediately, Mason responded.

“Here Mason, Wha’ts goin’ on there?” She asked, worried.

“I just knocked out a youngster in the middle of the Cow Circle terrains, com’ here now” Grenda replied, huffed.

“ I’ll be there in 20, don’t lose the screws” Mason said, amused. “Wendy, I have a favor to ask you…”

\- 

The great theropod laid unconscious aside the clearing of the river, breathing deeply, over the grass. At a short distance, the beige-colored cows stepped over the ground and mooing nervously behind Grenda, their huge black eyes reflecting a wordless fear of the beast that was chasing them only a few minutes ago. Grenda looked at the youngster, proudly holding her old reliable yellow armchair, her favorite weapon. It was a hell of hunt, but she could presume she put the dinosaur down without a single cow lost. 

She saw a truck going straight to them across the near road, and smiled; this time she shouldn’t dispose of the youngster alone.

“It looks I got a taxi for a youngster, tattoed cows” Grenda said, putting her chair in the floor to adjust her police hat…

-

It was 9:45PM, as usual, and Mason was in her chosen room; the old attic. Soos and Melody lived near Abuelita’s house since the incident with the scampfire, but she had still thinking that one day they could want to return to live in the shack, so she settled in the attic, as her home inside the home. She made space for a desk due they didn’t need a second bed anymore, just where her bed was originally. She was on her blue pajama of smiling clouds, with her hair ponytailed and biting the pen which she used to make accounts of the new things in her Journal. Neither she nor Ford kept the first three, but for the nostalgia, she used the same format, designating it as Journal 4.

There, every few days at the same time, she talked with Mabel, to keep themselves informed of everything one could need of the other. Thus wasn’t just paranoid, because there were times when Mason traveled half of the country to help Mabel with one of her most ambitious art projects, and one time, Mabel traveled back to Gravity Falls to help Mason in the rescue of a flock of Barf Fairies from a nest of youngsters (as the GFSWLPD, the Gravity Falls Supernatural Wild Life Protection Department, called the young ceratoraurs). But certain times, they could use the cam callings for not so professional uses. Mason could be nude right now, but after the incident with Mabel’s roommate, they got a little bit more careful about the matters.

Mason waited, holding her smile, with her heart pumping fast, as the hour came, with her elbows firmly over the desk. As usual, at the first second Mabel answered, greeting her sister loudly, as only Mabel Pines could do it.

“Hey there! May-May!” Mabel said aloud. She was wearing rave clothing, with her glittering bandana and fake plastic glasses still over her eyes, so Mason concluded that the college’s party was really fun for her.

“Hey there, Bel-Bel” Mason replied softly and tender, smiling widely. Her eyes shined at Mabel’s mere sight, and her heart gained spontaneous contempt for seeing her so happy.

“How’s the pen sis?” Mabel asked, having seen Mason still chewing her pen. Mason put out her mouth immediately, remembering the las time she burst one in the middle of the call.

“Not so good at the last one my dear sister” Mason asked. “How was the party?”.

“Total success sis! Our dean joined us and ended swimming in the punch’s inflatable swimming pool! I’d liked you were here to pun things at” Mabel said, still in the stupor of the party. “How was your day sis? Any new monster or freaky thing?”

“Strangely not, but was amazing anyway. Grenda put down a youngster herself, we got help of Wendy to transport it back his territory, but it woke up in the middle of Main Street, thank God for Stan’s armchair to put him down again” Mason said, recalling the things in her mind.

“You see? I told you Grenda was good for the job! Who better to fight dinosaurs than our baroness stronggurl?” Mabel replied, winking at her. Then, she stopped the amusement just before annoy Mason about Wendy in one of her falsetto jealous scenes, when she saw her nervous face, drawing an assorted sadness. “Mason, are you ok?”

“I visited it” Mason replied, gulping and whispering, trying to not remember her grief. “I visited McGucket’s grave”. Then she closed her eyes, holding the sob; she was not ready, not yet.

“Oh Mason…” Mabel said, thinking in a way of no letting her sister to cry. “I miss him too. He was our friend, but… Dang, I’d like to be the overprotective twin right now”.

“Don’t worry Mabes, it’s ok” Mason said, smiling her weakly, “I think you’re the strong one now”

“No, I’m not. Mason… I feel like I’m not holding this as you, you’re the one who answers Dad’s callings and deal with monsters and I was on a fabulous rave when you got this hard moment today…” Mabel begun to say, feeling her guilty grow. Certainly, was Mason’s idea go to take their temporary refugee on Gravity Falls, and the definitive settling there, so she felt bad for no having done more for their actual well-being. But at the moment, Mason interrupted her.

“Mabel, that’s not true. You kept in the college even after all of this thing, as we promised, remember? We promised to keep our dreams no matter what, to show Dad and Mom that we’re not just a pair of capricious deviants and honestly I seriously doubt I could have held all this without you. You made me strong Mabes, never forget it” Mason said proudly, letting go her grief for a moment.

“When you’ll stop of be my sweet sisfriend?” Mabel asked, smiling lighthearted.

“Never Mabes, never. I love you” Said Mason, with her most sincere voice.

“I love you so much too Mason” Mabel replied, letting out a little tear over her cheek. Then both laughed, still surprised of how deeply they cared one for the other. Mason gulped again, this time for content.

“… This is our life know” Mason said, chuckling. “Besides, I can remember that Mondays your roommate is with her boyfriend so…” Mason began to say, stripping out one of her sleeves in a flirtatious way.

“Oh, how unappropriated Miss. Pines” Mabel replied, faking a british accent as she put a hand over her mouth, waving with the other.

Thus both girls lte their flare on, happy and in peace, ignorant of the huge occurrences for come. Out of the Shack, a brief blue sparkle tilted in the midair, letting out a weak scent of burned hair…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on several Pinecest-themed FemDip Au's


	6. Into the Never Vault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Time War is on its middle point, and a desperated king rushes for salvation...

_\- The Never Vault, Planet Gallifrey II, Year 6^5%12? of The Last Great Time War, Universe #### (CLASSIFIED)_

_There was once, a noble race born on a noble world which mastered Time itself, and took over its shoulders the duty of protect the well-being of the History, thus also the fates, of every living thing. But then a war begun, and then another, just after, and their once sacred purpose twisted horrendously, until everything left of their nobility were words devoid of truth and misshapen tyrants, which drove themselves into a spiraling madness, as their whole cosmos burned around them. They became beasts, fierce monsters whose only objective was to win a war against an enemy whose wickedness hadn’t been different than theirs since a long time ago. But one man of this race of monsters remained pure in his will. A man I fear deem us as monsters. For your sake my beloved Neverweres, I hope this last pure Time Lord bow for us this time._

Over the skies of the ruins of the Second Gallifrey, last clone planet remaining of the War in Heaven, a bewildering mass of wild beasts mounted in carcasses of fallen dalek ships had broken into the battle. What began as a skirmish between the Time Lords and the daleks quickly draw the attention of The Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres, which had learned a long time ago, that if daleks put so much effort in a single battle, was because they discovered something juicy, something they could use at their favor. The armies let their ships fall as shooting stars over the planet, battling the battle itself. The furious Meanwhiles, people robbed of their destinies, opened fire against everyone who wasn’t coming with them, as the Neverweres, ferocious beasts whose very lives were stolen by the meddling of the Time Lords with Time, drew a path of blood and insanity across the entrances of the Never Vault, a secret hideout of forbidden weapons, carved inside a mountain made of pure diamond.

Leading the nightmare, was the Could’ve Been King. His greyish cloak, in which were the names of every person and species robbed of their lives that he sought for recover, waved against the wind. His patched armor, made of pieces of armors he brought across the war, made clicking sounds with every step he made over the Time Lord amassed corpses and the scratch of a thousand dalek casings. His faceless grey head emitted an unsettling feeling of pure fear, as he adjusted his squared forked crown, put out of place in the middle of the battle. He was willing to hunt so much as the Time Lords were willing to rob lives, so, in his inexistent eyes, every battle was worth of it.

Finally, he came in front the huge black door that sealed the Never Vault. He knew what (and who) was in there, and felt for once, that the victory was near. He put one of his blackened hands over the black, pure rock of the door, and with a head moving, he ordered the Neverweres to put it down. The nightmarish creatures, of every shape and size imaginable, rammed at the door as they roared, hissed, and grunted aloud, hammering their multiple, hideous extremities against the black rock, without fear or hesitation. The Could’ve Been King looked at them proudly, letting them do their best to accomplish the task.

Finally, the gargantuan door fell into the massive passage it was hiding, arousing a copious amount of dust far over the reddened skies. The Could’ve Been King was the first one to come across, and the Neverweres followed him quietly.

The army walked across endlessly vast corners and vaults full of hellish weapons, some of which were noisy and mechanical, while others were so complex and filled with astonishing details, that were painful to see even for the Neverweres. But the Could’ve Been King knew exactly what he went to find, so as him, no one of them made any attempt to take any of the weapons and unholy devices. A kind of frigthening respect poured across every corner of the Never Vault, making even the most fearsome of the Neverweres to get cautious and fearful. 

After a long walk, they found the core of the Never Vault and within, the place where the item the Could’ve Been King desired with his whole heart. Beneath a tapestry with the seal of the Pyrodian Chapter, in a room full of undesirable things recovered from incursions from other realities, the desired object waited for be held in the King’s clawed hands. The wild Neverweres recovered their braveness at the words of their master, and broke down across every door they found, until they finally reached the right one. But the last room, as he expected, wasn’t devoid of people at all.

The vomitive beasts came in first, grumping wildly as they wimped their hideous protrusions, feeling the presence of a familiar face. They gave The Could’ve Been King space to get in, and when he did, he found _who_ was looking for.

“My Lord Doctor, Glad to see you again” The Could’ve Been King said, extending his hand to the old, beardy man standing in front the blue police box, just atop the tapestry. His elder, tired eyes stared at the King with unsaid fury as he held his brown bandolier in his hands.

“I have not the same impression of you, Could’ve Been King” The Doctor said, unhanding the bandolier. “Thus, you know the legends. Had you noticed I don’t bring weapons? Go away now or I shall be the last thing you notice”.

“Oh, such a rude thing coming from the last sane Time Lord I fear, I hoped we could understand each other considering what we’ve seen” The Could’ve Been King said, lowering his arm.

“I’ve seen what your pets had done above us; do you really think I could stand with you in something? Those were Time Lords you and your army killed. You’ve covered this world with the blood of my people!” The Doctor said, angrily, his hands making fist.

“It’s not like I have an option anymore. Don’t you see my armies Doctor? All of them were robbed of their lives, casted out from History; entire lives destroyed at all Doctor, whole species and kinds banished from the homes that your people had destroyed. I won’t quit them their right to hunt” The King replied stoically.

“How can you hold that mock of philosophy like that? You destroy whole worlds and you call it right?!” The Doctor said, angrier.

“I don’t want this Doctor. You learned the same lesson I learned a long time ago; no matter how many you save, with perversions in Time like the ones caused by _your_ people, the ones that maimed the lives of my armies, there’s no one to save. This is just a far pity corner of the Time War, but in very heart, millions die every second, lost in the lust of blood and insanity, along Time itself, and then brought back to life, only to find new ways to die again and again and again. It’s a parody of life. Don’t you think it’s time to end with this once for all?”

“You can’t believe this is an answer as much as I don’t believe it” The Doctor replied, putting a step forward his TARDIS.

“I do Doctor, I do with my whole heart. Besides, I needed a way to how distract you” The Could’ve Been King said joyfully.

Suddenly, an immense pickle-like rubbed tentacle got out fromthe ground, breaking thru at great speed and throwing The Doctor against the TARDIS’s doors. As fast as the tentacle grew out the floor, the King and every Meanwhile and Neverwas there hold of it, roaming triumphantly as they escaped out of sight.

The Doctor opened his eyes, finding himself inside the TARDIS. “Damn! He’s good” He said, and lifted, running to the console.

\- 

The TARDIS flew wildly across the space, pursuing the flotilla of flying carcasses. Inside, he looked furiously at the screen, moving his controls to materialize the TARDIS inside a ship. “Come on, come on old girl, you can do this!” Said The Doctor, as he pulled the silver lever. Then, the cloister bell sounded, and he saw the unconceivable through the screen.

The infamous Never Castle materialized in the space, and the rotten ships went inside. The Doctor felt a brick falling in his stomach, and stopped the materialization; he had to see it for his own, at least for once. He ran to the TARDIS doors, and opened them. He saw the white, marbled castle, with a thousand sharp, round towers, which held an ominous pack of clouds around them like a slice of winter sky knitted by a mockery of Russian castle. Even in the void of space, The Doctor heard clearly the thousands of roaring screams coming from inside, and felt the disturbing feeling that several Time Lords that witnessed it (and survived it) described before. Then, just as the stories told, the Never Castle was engulfed by the space as something covered by a black blanked.

“For God’s sake”.


	7. A brand New Road

Cassie turned around herself frantically, as the whisperings turned into grumpy voices, and certain tackling sounds of multiple objects hitting on the stony forest ground became audible. Diffuse shadows begun to move between the trees, huge and rapid, and as one of them begun to approach her, the rest stood still but not silent, as Cass could notice certain noises more resembled to mocking laughs than growls, accompanied by a rotten scent to dead flesh breath. From the other side of the wide street, she saw the creature, and, perhaps for instant, the horrid presence asked itself about Cass’s identity so much as Cass begun to ponder about the creature’s. Cassie begun to walk backwards very slowly, on the search of something she could grab to defend herself with one hand, and holding the die shard with the other, keeping her father’s words in her mind as much as she could.

_I must be brave, I must be brave!_

“Come to me fella, I won’ hurt ya… so much” – The centaur-like furry beast told her in a taintful and raspy tone. Cass was still glancing at the creature, on search of an identity.

_Come on come on Cass, you can do this, you can do this! Lets see… its like a centaur… like spider thing? Maybe an arachnimorph…_

The approaching monster walked over eight furry spider-like legs that moved slowly and fluidly over the street floor, each one protruding from a round, huge thorax-like main body, from which protruded a humanoid torso.

_No! They don’t have such claws; they’re mammalian talons, almost human… Dang! I’ts like a mashup of different species… Got it! A shapeshifter!_

“Don’ ya fear me, my fair lady? It’s gud, you’ll taste betta” – The beast told her, moving its hideously pale and sharped fingers and breathed deeply, desiring for her flesh.

_No! I know those eyes… and that face! Let’s see lets seeeee…! Grunkle Ford told you about them… Come on! Long troll-like nose, four eyes, no visible ears… Got it!_

“You’re a mole man!” Cassie screamed at it, or better said, him. The beast made a step back, uneasy, moving his black furry arms in front his chest with indignation.

“How ya know the name of my folk?!” The mole man asked, furious. He hissed her, as she felt the concrete floor finish under her shoes, with nothing to hold. Then, the mole man grunted at her with deep hatred eyes, “Not matta’! I’ll make ya into pieces!!!”.

The mole man jumped at her, and she felt how everything became slightly slower…

_Right!!!_

Cassie threw herself at her right side, falling into the ground, hearing his glasses crashing the stony ground as her right elbow hit it. The mole man lunged his head against a tree and crumbled briefly into the floor. Cassie heard his heavy body moving the little stones, and desperately palped the ground in search of her glasses.

_Got it!_

With no time to lose, she put them and lifted from ground, listening as the beast got up and stumbled just behind her. She begun to ran, but in the worst possible moment, in the middle of the street, her right knee hurtled, and she fell to the cold concrete.

_No, No!_

Horrified, she listened how her glasses cracked in the floor, and painfully she put on knees, catching them. Her left glass was lost, but the right one was intact. She puffed, forgetful of the monster, and got up again. She walked two quicks steps when a cold and humid paw grabbed her ankle, and she stumbled into the floor again. She turned behind firefly to see the black, hairy critter smiling at her in a sadistic way, when both of them heard a loud claxon sound, and out of nothing, the mole man was lost of sight, lunged by a big truck. She crawled until the corner of the road, and put on her feet, as behind her, was audible the sound of the truck slowing down fiercely. Then, she became aware that she still feeling the hand in her ankle, and looked at her ankle. The hideous, clawed hand still grabbing her, ripped off of the mole man. She screamed and shaked her leg, utterly disgusted, until the paw fell into the ground. For a moment, she succumbed to the fear, and put her hands on her head, rubbing her hair. She needed to be brave right now, to not get lost in her panic, but she just couldn’t get focused a single second, feeling how her breath became deeper and a cold sweating fell into her face. She felt like she just was to hit the ground again when, suddenly, she heard a familiar voice.

“What a piece of roadkill!” A feminine and deep voice swore aloud. Cass looked to the right, and saw the truck stopped in the road. The back wagon had three enormous trunks attached by thick chains, and a thin trail of blood followed the path of the tires. The left door of the car opened, and a curvy, muscled redhead woman with blue pants and a mountain hat got out from the truck. Cassie almost instantly smiled; glad to see a familiar face in that entire insane situation. She tried to run, but her knee was still hurting, so she walked the quickest she could to reach the woman.

Then, Cass crushed a piece of her glasses in the ground, and the woman looked into her direction. Quickly, she ran to her, with a worried expression drawn in her face. The woman grabbed her arms, hugging her with no apparent reason.

“Gosh, are you okay?” The woman of the pale, freckled face asked Cass as she unbraced her, seeing her as a full strange stranded in the road. “I think I just hit the thing pursuing you”.

“Wendy? Oh My goo-…” Cass begun to say, getting close to Wendy to hug her, but suddenly Wendy make a step back, confused.

“Woa woa woa, stop there girl. How you know my name?” Wendy asked, lifting her arms in front of her.

“Wendy it’s me! Cassie, the daughter of Dipper and Mabel” Cassie asked, slightly surprised. Wendy made a brief but hurting face of disgust at the mention of that specific set of words, and walked three steps backwards, very quick.

“Who or what are you? Answer me!” Wendy said aloud, putting defensive, lowering her arms as she made her hands into fists.

“Wendy it’s me, Cassie, don’t you remember me?” Cassie asked, feeling a growing fear inside her.

“Ok, doppelgänger or clone or whatever you could be, there’s a couple of things you should know if you want to get a trick with me. First one: You’re not dealing with a girl who hasn’t seen monsters and weird things; do you know what town is in the nearing? Second: If you just read my mind or something let me say you you’ve made a pretty bad mashup of memories, because Dipper and Mabel are siblings, so there’s no way you can be their daughter. Tell me the truth, or I’ll smash you as I did with the mole man”. Wendy said with a stern, fearsome voice. In her mind, Cass begun to make the puzzle:

_Mom and Dad suddenly disappeared, me alone in the road, Wendy doesn’t remember me… The die shard made that switching thing with the symbols… oh no._

A sort of metaphysical panic ran through her head, and her breathing agitated again as she felt everything begun to make rounds around her, seeing how Wendy put more aggressive, cracking her fingers, ready to fight. Then, Cass played her only hand of the moment.

“Wa-Wait! I can prove it… I am near Gravity Falls, it’s in the direction you were going when you saved me from the mole man. And, for the other hand..”. Cassie uncovered her forehead, revealing her Cassiopeia-shaped birthmark. Wendy shuddered, unsure of what to do. “I know, this is a mad stuff and you have no reason to believe me, but I was told by… my parents before they disappeared that I must search them and for I know no one possibly will can help me and I am alone and I don’t have where to go…” Cass begun to say, as a watery string made its way through her cheek. Wendy then saw her bleeding knee and her broken glasses, and her face of full, tearful despair, and remembered. There was something… familiar with her since she saw her first, and she wasn’t sure why. She sighed, and decided to make what she had to do several years ago: to trust.

“Come with me girl” Wendy said, and Cassie run right to her, hugging her tightly. She felt frightened sobs pumping out the girl’s chest, a thing no one could feign enough to deceive someone, or at least, to deceive her. Certainly, was the craziest thing she had seen in a while, but her instinct never had failed her, and right now, it was telling her a sole thing: She had to help the girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on the fanfiction "Hide -n- Seek" (Tumblr.com)


	8. Lose the Road

\- Enchanted Forest, Gravity Falls, Oregon. Planet Earth, Local Cluster. Universe 47’\

Soos’s pickup landed just at 9:00 AM, as Melody promised, in front of Gnasty’s, the old gnome tavern in the middle of Enchanted Forest. They barely got there, and they saw the half-bitten sign; Soos could’ve chosen a good pun to “Ty’s”, but he knew which creature did that biting, and he didn’t take it funny at all. Melody got out of the car, and made a few stretches before grab her handy wallet, distinguished of Soos’s one for her old corn dog sticker. Soos came out after her, rubbing his arms with anti-mosquito bite lotion, the only thing that looked like the scampfires disliked almost so much as water. Melody grabbed sun blocker from her handy wallet, squished it and let out a drop, putting it on Soos’s nose, rubbing it.

“Don’t forget the sun blocker Soos, last time you got lost in the grass fields” Melody said, with a stern looking. Soos smiled, remembering that day, a few months ago. Was the first day Melody went to the brand new gym of Gravity Falls, the now famous “Mr. Poolcheck’s Psycho-Trainer Pit and Swimming Tool’s Store”, so he made his weekly round alone. Was then when he was cornered by a trio of youngsters and ended running straight to the Grass Fields, where he half-fell into a hole, and got there for five hours.

“Don’ worry Mels, I’m prepared now” Soos answered, giving her a gentle peek. Then, he turned around the forest, looking at it triumphantly. “ Today’s gonna be a good day” he said smiley. Then smelled something roasting behind him, and turned to his left, seeing a scampfire creeping over his shoulder, looking at him with curiosity. Instantly, Soos shook, terrified, until the scampfire fell on feet over the ground, and Soos begun to stomp at it, trying to make it go away. “Go away creep! Go away!” Soos said scared, as the scampfire evaded his foot, seemingly amused. Then, it went running behind a female gnome, who looked at them, annoyed.

“Hey ya fools, that’s my pet!” The white-dressed gnomid said standing furiously, with her tiny fists over her hips. The gnomid then turned her back to them, and begun to mime her scampfire. “Oww! The bad big men scared you Sparkly? Yes, he did he did” the gnomid said tenderly, as she rubbed the belly of her little shiny beast, the scampfire shaking one leg in response. Soos looked at Sparckly with sharp eyes, wishing to squish it. “You’re lucky we need your help, big folk, or I’d punched you away” The gnomid said, facing them again.

“We’re sorry mam, my husband has had little problems with scampfires recently” Melody said politely. “Anyway, what’s the problem for which you called us?” she asked.

“I’ts behind the tree, but I’d like to wait until your chief comes too so all of ya can see it” The gnomid replied. Sparkly ran away her, into the woods, making Soos feel worried.

“Where it goes?” Soos asked, patting his burned shirt shoulder.

“_He_ is mounting guard. The youngsters fear the fire” The gnomid replied.

Then, they heard car noises from the other side, and saw the light brown rusted pickup heading in front a near tree. The tree immediately lifted, revealing a huge foot big as the car, covered in green moss in the heel and rubbed orange mushrooms sprouting around. The pickup stopped, and Mason, with obviously messy hair badly covered by her cap, got out her head thru the window.

“Sorry Fanny! I didn’t see you” Mason screamed. Fanny groaned deeply, and went away, making stomp sounds with every step she made, disappearing between the woods. Then Mason got out the car, Slightly stumbling. Her blue shirt was wrongly buttoned, and her jacket was coffee stained, so Soos and Melody supposed quickly that she just woke up before come. Soon, she reached them, with a feeble an awkward smile.

“Everything ok honey?” Melody asked.

“No problem, busy night I had… Sorry” Mason replied, getting a little red.

The gnomid made a huge raspberry, very annoyed, and Mason turned to her.

“Can I show ya now? come here” the gnomid said.

They followed her to behind Gnasty’s entrance, in the other side of the tree, where the markings were. They were deep and messily crossed, and everyone felt an uneasy hum coming from the moss around the tree. Mason looked at the claw markings, trying to figurate their purpose. They were four-fingered markings, so Mason concluded quickly that were made by a youngster, but the ugly smell was something new, something she feared was right to think about as she thought in the moment.

“So… I assume was a youngster” Mason said, looking at the markings above them, with her hands holding her hips.

“Yep. The big lizard just came here barely at the sunsetting. It was making weir’ noises and when I got out to see what was happenin’ the beast just began to make a piss in the floor. Luckily Sparkly scared it away, ‘cause if he didn’t, probably I couldn’t have opened today” The gnomid said, turning her sight to Mason.

“Soos, Melody; go to make a round around and have the pistols at hand. I’ll call Grenda” Mason said sternly.

“Yes mam” Soos said, making a military salute. Then he and Melody went, and Mason turned back to the tree. For a moment she tried to grab her walkie-talkie out of her jacket pockets, but she didn’t found it. Her worries began to increase in the moment she heard a youngster matting call not so far them. Strangely the gnomid didn’t seem too scared about.

“Well Miss. Peggy, we have to clean this smell immediately, bring all the soap you can, I’ll call for reinforces” Mason said to the gnomid.

“What is it?” the gnomid answered, with her usual brave behavior slowly fading away.

“A ‘Go Away’ sign” Mason replied, having just heard another roar. The pupils of the gnomid shrank, and she ran right to the entrance of Gnasty’s, knowing what that meant. Mason went to her pickup and opened the door, finding the walkie-talkie in the glove compartment. How it got there was a mystery, but Mason quickly alluded to her sleep hangover. She grabbed the walkie-talkie, calling for Grenda. “Grenda, are you there?” Mason asked.

“Grenda here, What’s the matter?” Grenda replied.

“We got a little trouble here; I found territory markings just behind the gnome tavern, make a reconnaissance around the borders of the Enchanted Forest, if you see another one, make me a call” Mason said.

“Got it, see ya soon May-May” Grenda said with playful tone. Mason smiled slightly, remembering the night.

“Did you talk with Mabel didn’t you?”

“Yep, she sends you hugs and kisses”

“Hehe, then…” Mason stopped her her talk in the moment she heard steps behind her. Then, hissings and the clear sound of a tail slamming against the pickup truck’s tailgate. She stood still, as she learned to do; It wasn’t the first time a predator dinosaur cornered her so close, so she knew what to do.

She lowered her breath, making the effort to not feel nervous, waiting for the right moment. She heard the sound of the youngster nose-horn scratching the coffin, and jumped straight into the van.

The youngster roared and put its feet over the coffin, tearing apart the opened door with its scaly jaws. Mason made a quick glance of its black spots under its yellow eyes, and knew it was a male. Turning on the truck, she pushed hard the accelerator, and the youngster rounded over the truck, falling to the ground behind the moving truck. The youngster lifted, slightly pained, and threw the car door. Then looked into Mason’s direction, and roared furiously.

Mason ran across the forest at full speed, looking around everywhere, caring of not smash someone in the way, at moment maneuvering to avoid a flock of seemingly annoyed pixies. She listened how their tiny curses turned into screams as she looked at the back mirror, and her eyes peeled at the sight of a startled youngster pursuing her, making strong stomps as he roared at her. For a moment she came across the Height-altering Crystals glade, and a funny-set arrangement of pieces shrunk her and made her big again, as she pushed harder. Then she saw the back mirror again, and saw the youngster being shrank and made big again.

Suddenly, the forest turned into road, and she skidded violently, barely avoiding a coming truck. The pickup’s tires hit the ground, shaking her against the seat, but she kept the pedal pressed with her whole strength, as she heard how the noises of the truck skidding behind her were faded by the ones of branches being broken. She looked again at the back mirror, and saw the youngster following her path out of the trees, getting faster. Then she heard the ping of the gas alarm; something had pinched in her fuel tank. The van soon should stop, and she thought as fast as she could what to do.

She choose the brave option, and sighed. Then she pushed the stop pedal hard, and felt the wimping crashing her forehead right to the steering wheel.

_For a moment she lose the conciseness, but it returns quickly, feeling as something is making her feel very, very thin. She opens her eyes, or at least believes she does, and finds herself in the middle of a misty, glittering pink space. She is floating in the spacetime-between spacetimes, as she can recall by some previous visions she had an epic summer, two years ago. She turns back surprisingly easy, and sees what she hopes to see in those circumstances._

_There is it, the gigantic, pale amphibian, with deep black eyes and reddened gills wiggling in the nothingness. As usual, is tongue iss half-out in a mocking expression, and Mason can see trought its intimidating eyes, that (again) she is going to be instructed of something huge. For a moment, she fears the worse._

_“Oh no! I’m dead. Please tell me if I’m dead, I just hit my head so hard that I can’t believe I’m not dead so…” To the moment she hopes to be interrupted, the mighty being hasn’t said anything; just stares at her, not moving a muscle, so she quickly concludes she’ just being silly. “Oh, sorry, not dead” Mason says, rolling her eyes in shame. But then she wonders why she is there, and asks for it. ”Wait, If I’m not dead so…?” Mason tried to ask. Suddenly, the great amphibian interrupts her, its black eyes shining at every deep, prophetic word it says to her._

_Your Pine Tree Brother so much need,_

_your fast, pure, faster and faithful aid,_

_Three old kings had been misguided,_

_and his life and her beloved mate’s one had been teared._

_To save them and everyone else, of this horrid, twisted fate._

_You must search the old brave warrior who as you has lost his faith._

_So go on the way, you brave and faithful girl_

_‘cause your whole life and everyone around it Is about to make a twirl…_

Mason opened her eyes, this time for real, and found herself bleeding slightly over the claxon of the steering wheel. The astonishing sound disappeared right when she slowly lifted her head, feeling it tilting painfully. She reached her forehead with her hand, and felt how a little wound ran just over her hairline, above her birthmark, nothing to worry about. But she still felt dizzy, and it took her a little to find out which was the way out of the car. She put her weight over her boots, but her legs felt thin, and she fell straight into the ground.

She breathed hardly, still infused in her contusion, but that wasn’t the first time, and knew that she would relax, and the dizziness should go away. She looked in front of her, and saw, a little triumphantly, the youngster who laid unconscious a few feet in front the van, breathing heavily. She smiled, still wiggly, and heard the walkie-talkie buffing endlessly behind her. She held up with her arms, and tried to lift again. This time, her legs kept their straightness, and she walked to where the walkie-talkie laid in the ground. She bent and picked up, answering the calling.

“Mason here, the youngster’s over the ground. You can begin to cheer me up” Mason said, merrily.

“Mason! Soos here! Mason” She heard Soos calling back, with a severe tone of worry in his voice.

“What happens? Everything ok?” Mason replied.

“Mason, I picked up a tracker this mornin’ ‘cause… don’ matter. Mason, you have to run, now!”

“What happens? Soos!” Mason responded, her fear growing.

“The rips! Are coming to you! Run!”

Mason left the walkie-talkie fall over the ground, having seen a dimensional rip switching on and off a few inches aside the youngster’s head. Then it opened half of the distance, and her breath ran wild again. She suddenly fell to the ground, and still in her five blurry senses, she crawled over the floor, trying to get out of the way, but the rip switched on and off nearer every time. Getting back her braveness, she put on feet; if she just defeated a dinosaur a moment ago, she couldn’t allow to anything to stop her. But then she felt a bitter, warm wind with the scent of burned hair, just behind her. Her left heel felt thin right in the moment, and she fell into the rip, staring at the skies in horror. The rip closed a moment later, and no one more opened after that.

The walkie-talkie buffed again and again over the floor, with no response…


	9. A Heavy Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a normal morning for the Pines family, or at least that's what it looks like...

\- Some Shifts back…

The red sky was burning with ominous sights of crawling beasts from beyond the space itself, threatening and bubbling lots of claws and jaws of distorted teeth; where their orange, scaly bodies ended and where were supposed to begin was not clear, but certainly, were a lot of them, cracking through the skieslike they were made of glass, in an attempt to enter to Reality. Thus they stomped themselves against the space like someone punching a window, moving the air masses around. The trees along the whole forest were being hit by powerful winds what almost could rip off them from ground, and moved the entire course of Trembley Falls out of place, carried away every single flying thing from the air, and threw away stormy amounts of dust. Everyone, man or beast or fairy, was running or flying or swimming or creeping in every direction, prey of an absolute terror; in such horror that no one in town gave attention of the supernatural creatures that ran among the streets, so frightened as they were. But someone in the middle of the chaos remained calm as could be in such circumstances.

Below the iconic Mystery Shack, in a hidden lab, an old woman was in her own fight for keep the massive machinery functional. Behind the glass, the old woman of grey long hairs and pink sweater set on motion every piece, button an tiny lever on the control panel, according to the instructions in the journals. She made a glance to the old man buried in a pillar of ancient sap, frozen in the position where he was when he ended there, with a silver crown shinning intensely in his head.

\- You can do it Dipstick, you can do it – The old woman said to him, knowing he could be hearing her. She then adjusted her glasses and fez, and kept on the work, faithful in her mission.

In the forest, two fourteen-year kids ran for their lives. One, a six-fingered boy in brown jacket, holding something in his right hand. The other, a blond, hippie-styled girl with bronzed skin, trying to follow his pace, holding tightly his left hand with hers. They were running straight to where they were supposed to be, but in the mind of the boy, he was conscious that there was no time left. Suddenly he stopped the run, and so she did too, trying to no crash with him. He put in front of her, and held her hands with his, keeping three fingers in his right hand still tight.

“What are you doing? We must find Stan and Soos!” the girl asked him, astonished. Then, the boy unmade the three fingers he was holding and upheld his hands of hers. Then he put a metallic necklace around her neck in which was a shard of some sort of purple crystal, keeping a silent sad face, staring at her. “Ford, what’s going on?”

“There’s not time to explain…” The boy tried to said, just to be interrupted by the girl.

“Try it” The girl demanded in stern voice. The boy silently nodded, and then proceeded to make a tirade.

“This is the deal: Someone – no, something is messing with the timeline of the universe and is creating slices of reality that are in constant flux thus my own and every life that everyone have been lived their whole lives is just a slice of reality and is about to change but some people disappears and other no and I can remember the switching because – The point is that you’re not in every other timeline I’ve lived and I don’t want you disappear forever ‘cause…” The boy’s face reddened, and the girl remained quiet, trying to catch everything he just said. She looked at him, in quiet hopping.

“Because…” The girl said, urging for truth.

“Because… because!…” The boy tried to say, but his words just not came out. Then, after a furtive expression of utter frustration, he looked at her, terrified, and stole her a fast, punching kiss, that endured only a second, but for her was a whole life of unspoken words. He suddenly turned apart, as she touched her lips with her fingertips, happily nervous.

“Oh…” The girl said, almost inaudible.

“Darlene, listen to me. Not matter what could happen, whatever you do, never quit the necklace, neve…”

_Ford finds himself floating in an astonishing nowhere, embarrassingly naked, and with all his mind strength, trying to not feel disappointed for be there again. His gut makes fast rounds inside him, at the lack of spatial directions; oh yeah, just like in the Nightmare Realm. At the moment, he listen the voice again, hoping for an argument, a heavy one._

_“You’re here again” The female voice speaks softly._

_“I failed Jess. I failed again and everything{s for my fault” Ford replies, his worries growing intensely._

_“Don’t guilt yourself for this, the Shifts are increasing, where are getting out of time” The female voice responds, with compressive tone. “Anyway, there’s could not be point in save others if we hope just live our lives in passionless pain. That is what killed my kind in first place, as you can remember. What you did, you did it for love, and there’s no greater force, whichever could be the form in which manifests”._

_“The love won’t save my universe Jess, no matter how much I can believe it” Ford says, unamused._

_“Indeed it did once, was not that that defeated Bill?” The female voice replies, motivating. Ford thinks for a moment, and his face gets confused._

_“It did…” Ford says, unsure. “You’re getting a point, don’t you?” He feels how the face behind the voice smiles, and suddenly he feels the dumbest man in this whole dam situation._

_“What is the thing all the Shifts have in common?” The voice asks, and Ford feels a moment of revelation. But is an unsettling revelation, something that makes him feel a quite uncomfortable._

_“That Dipper and Mabel are or will engage in a sort of romantic relationship…” Ford answers, rubbing his chin. “… In every one of them!” He practically screams in response to his own mental arguing. “But what an All-Powerful force could want around something like that?” He asks, uneasy._

_“As the old song says my dear friend ‘Some things are meant to be’” The female voice says, sterner than before. Ford is unsure of what to do or thing at respect, but knowing what was the original development of events, he doesn’t argues against the theory, and then feels a punch in his gut, a punch of utter fear._

_“I must save them. And Cassie…” He says, serious. ”If whatever-thing mess with my family once more, I’ll do whatever is at hand to protect them” He continues, more resolved in the direction of his quest. He feels how the invisible face smiles proudly at him, and now is sure of what to do._

_“First, you must need to wake up…” Ford feels the deafening pulse of his own heart and then…_

Ford woke up screaming aloud, practically sending his blanket to fly. His black shirt was soaked in cold sweat, and he could swear he just pissed his pants. Certainly, he was unsure how many post-Shift naps he could hold before go insane, but for his respect, he needed a therapist to digest the whole thing, and that was much to say, for a man who walked across the entire multiverse. He scanned the place around him, trying to figure where he ended this time. He was on the Stan O’War’ II, in his personal berth. He saw the unfinished skeleton of a fossilized baby gooblewonker mounted in his desk, and several maps glued to the walls, a few of them with a read seal that readied ‘found’ in big letters. He sighed, more calmed down; he was on the Shift most closely related to the timeline he almost felt sure was the original, so he knew, for the calendar in his wooden desk, that they were on the Norwegian coasts. At the moment, he heard steps in the stairs, and saw Stan coming through, with a deeply worried expression, carrying his speargun, ready to shoot.

“Sixer! What’s goin’ on? He asks, totally frenzied.

“Da’ hell Stanley, put that dam thing down now!” He answered startled, passing a hand through his face.

“Well, the next time a leprechaun latch in your precious side-whiskers, fend for yourself” Stan replied, faking indignation. Ford sat on his bed, looking for the ground, then looked Stan, unsettled.

“Stan, we have to go back to California” Ford said, deep and serious.

‘You’re kiddin’ me Ford? We’ve just came here. Try to enjoy a little the fjord, or at least go on the search the anomaly we just came to find” Stan said, moving the speargun annoyed, but Ford kept serious.

“Stan, this is serious, the kids are in danger” Ford replied, lifting from his bed.

“How serious?” Stan asked, getting in the same humor as Ford.

“I have an only question to you… Do you remember my tender kisses” Ford asked, as serious as something like that shouldn’t. Stan sharped his eyes, unsure of what to ask, but immediately picked up some faded memory, and an instantaneous disgust face covered his face.

“Dang! Yes!” Stan asks, feeling about to puke.

“That serious” Ford answered, still serious.

“Another Weirdmaggedon?” Stan asked.

“No. This time is more perilous…”

-

“No. This one is more perilous” Dipper said, arguing for the new olive oil used for the morning’s pancakes. The flavor was hard to keep in the mouth, so he and Mabel were taking out the tongue for a while due the near-disgusting flavor, so was Dad. Mom looked at him with dart eyes, and he buried his face on the newspaper, without say a word.

“Well, I take care of your health young man, you kids can’t cheat me about what you’re doing when we aren’t here” Mom said, pointing to Dipper with the metallic spatula while he was drinking of his orange glass. The comment got him out of place, and the spontaneous paranoia made him to choke with the juice, punching his chest with his fist in response of the juice that went where it should not, his face reddening because the brief outbreath, as he put down his hat to give himself a little air. Mabel looked down her plate, fearing the worse, as she made her best attempt to not look scared. “Yep, I busted you kids. There were like… four koala gummies’s bags in the kitchen trash past Wednesday, you two are going to eat healthier, beginning today” Mom said, turning around a pancake in the pan. Dipper made his best effort to not show the sudden calm that ran down his spine, as Mabel tried to not smile so wide.

“Well mom, we’re not the only ones who loves the koala gummies as cray-crays” Mabel replied, still smiling, as she instantly delivered accusing eyes to Dad. He put the newspaper down, pretending to feel betrayed.

“Was just a bag Mabel, not a great busting” Dad said. Mom looked back at him, and he smiled nervously, finishing his plate.

“It’s for that we’ll make these little changes in our diet, Pines family. Grandad Filbrick died for a heart attack, so it’s better to begin from now” Mom replied, serving her plate.

“Grandad was like 98 years old, it was a pretty long life” Dad replied, unamused. “Besides, it was a boring noon and Mabel has been bringing the bags recently, do the math”

“Yeah, I do the math for a heart attack, dear” Mom replied, sitting on her chair. Dipper and Mabel laughed, as usual being Mom who defended her high school’s first place in debate. 

So the breakfast ended uninterrupted, and, as usual, Mabel and Dipper were the first ones to go. As was the habit over the last weeks, both went on Dipper’s van. The first ones were harsh weeks, as the Prom’s situation with Mabel was known by the entire grade, so the hard attitudes from Aiden’s friends didn’t made to wait – and also, the replies of the girl whose bike was stolen and had to go back home walking –. But the harshness passed out quickly, most because Aiden discouraged very single of those attitudes, as every time he caught some gossip comment or a harsh attitude towards Mabel he interfered, deeming the situation as worthless of be. IN which respected to him, he was just another unlucky soul who passed to make wider the lines of the broken hearts. But Mabel kept feeling the guilt and certain part in her insides, the one that was still Aiden’s best friend, wanted with despair to tell him the whole truth. But that was something that none of them could even think to do, and certainly characteristic fear, almost invisible but never ignored, to be discovered, and the later hell that could fall upon them, weighed like a brick glued on their backs at every moment of doubt. So, the little trips to school were their only bits of freedom in the daily routine, a few but significant moments when they could talk about whatever (especially about their relationship) without the need of look around them. So Mabel showed herself especially enthusiastic at the time of prepare for school, something Dipper viewed odd, but undeniably cute. 

That morning wasn’t different; they waved off their parents, Mabel practically ran straight to the van and stored the backpacks in the backseat. But then she made a quick glance to the other side of the street. She hadn’t to do it nor needed to do it, but something tiny in her insides pleaded her to do it. And she saw it. At the other side of the street, a huge, black spot aside the lamppost was like printed over the concrete, something she thought familiar for a moment, almost… like a warning. But she didn’t held the though too much, and slightly shacked her head. Then She and Dipper got up the car, and departed from home to school. 

As usual, Mabel and Dipper made conversation about how could their days go, and, in certain moments, made heavy allusions to their last night, in middle of tender glances and kisses in the hands. But then Mabel made silence for a moment, gulped, and threw the bomb.

“Hey Dip…” Mabel said, smiling feebly. Dipper made a quick glance, not distracting himself from the road.

“Yep” Dipper said, calmed as usual.

“I… I was thinking about… Us and… What we’re supposed to do after high school and all the stuff” Mabel continued. Dipper made a confused looking, unsure of where she was going.

“Do you talk about the plan?” Dipper asked, feeling a little bit of insecurity getting out of his chest.

“Yep! The plan. And Iiiii really-really-super-absolutely think we must make space for an extra step” Mabel replied, playing nervously with her fingers. Dipper noted it instantly, feeling like he knew what she wanted to say, but decided to let her say it for her own. So he pretended his best fake soft voice to ask her again.

“Yep, tell me” He said, moving the speed lever as he was about to make a stop to turn to left in the next street.

“Well… Tell the truth to Mom and Dad”

Dipper stepped on the pedal at full force, stopping violently, rushing against the floor, as they heard the claxon of the car behind them and the rasping of the tires. Dipper stretched his hands, still over the steering wheel. His mind frenzied for a little, full of rage and angry asks about all ‘What-the-holy-holy-heck-is-thinking-Mabel-what-will-happen-then’- sorts of things he had to argue with her before. But then looked at her, with her ashamed-Mabel face, and began to understand why she was thinking they should do it. He turned the car to left and parked aside a blue wall. Then he turned off the car, feeling the outgoing of a long conversation.

“It’s badly obvious, isn’t?” Dipper asked, begging inside him for no to sound pressing, gulping nervously.

“I don’t know what to think about anymore Dip. But… I don’t want to still fearing as I do. Admit it, If we can’t feel the less comfy just as we’re now – I mean, you were almost juic-ided this morning for a single thing Mom said – how can we keep this longer? We can’t just pass the rest of our lives pretending just being a pair of bachelors, ooor pretending we must hide from our friends and family like a duo of mobsters robbing the decency of world. We went through hell to be together and if you don’ feel proud of it, I do” Mabel said, breathing heavily, a wet line making through her left cheek. Dipper made a mind road about what she said, and he didn’t liked the fact that he probably knew the cause of Mabel’s crying outbursts all time.

“Was ‘cause that you burst all this weeks, I’m wrong about?” Dipper asked, looking at her full in angst.

“Wha-? No! Dipper I just… I don’t want to hide anymore” Mabel replied, gulping aloud. Dipper made no response, unsure if single words could say how equally despaired was him about .He knew perfectly about the whole life of aggresive questions and inquirings to make a future for his own aside Mabel, or all the things they should never could share with their beloved ones. A wedding, a family… even a children, all the things Mabel dreamed about her entire life that now couldn’ t never see to happen for being stuck with him. But she loved him more than everything of that, and she had already made her decision. He took her hand, looking at it, as he made his.If shehad the beaveness to endure with him, he could perfectly have the braveness to do his best to acomplish her dreams.

“We can’t just be goose waiting for the shotgun, I fear” Dipper said, rubbing her hand with his thumb. Mabel giggled, remembering where he took that phrase from.

“That’s a quack-y deal my bro” Mabel replied with her best faked penguin accent. Dipper laughed, still looking at her hand. Then both looked up, exchanging glances.

“How something that feels so fantastic to be wrong?” Dipped said, his lips trembling.

“We can’t be soap-opera’s good material if we haven’t a proper forbidden love story” Mabel replied, smiling at him sadly. Then, they closed their faces, holding the melancholy, and their lips met for a while. In certain way, their situation got the best of them, and one knew perfectly, what the other made better for the sake of their mutual love. Mabel enjoyed the way in which Dipper lowered his usual utter-anxiety/sleepy-bag-of-meat shifting routine and learned how to say things without saying them, and Dipper loved the way in which their situation gave her straightness to be braver and resolved about her own daily issues and dealing with people; and certainly, he infected her with some proper vocabulary, as she did to him with some safe doss of mabelness.

Their lips separated, and suddenly the one’s hands where on the other’s cheeks. They glanced merrily, and at the same time, heartbroken, about the whole mess that the plan meant to them in the future.

“What we’re gonna do with this” Dipper said, still holding her face tenderly.

“If I can choose, leeeetme choose the country” Mabel replied, putting her hands over his shoulders.

“What new, uncharted lands my fair lady wants to visit?” Dipper asked.

“We still can move to France. I made mi homework too, bro-bro” Mabel replied, winking.

“_Mademoiselle_ Mabel, sounds good to me” Dipper said, putting his hands back on the steering wheel and his sight on the road.

“Not as good as you, _Monsieur Mason_” Mabel replied, faking a French accent.

“Ugh, I’ll never use that name” Dipper said merrily, as he turned the van on.

So they departed, unaware of what the future had to them, bu twilling to deal with it. But they were also unaware that someone caught the last moment of their kiss. A few meters behind, Leigh remained still, her eyes darting and her left hand tightly holding her backpack strap, grinning malevolently.

“I got ya freaks” She said to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on the Dream Boy AU (doublepines - in-your-face-elizabeth; lost source, Tumblr.com)


	10. The Girl with the Cassiopeia's Bithmark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassie had escaped alive from her first shift, but there's still a long way for her...

Cassie was silent, uneasily silent, as she just laid sit on the seat. Her mind tried to configure what exactly happened, before to proceed to do anything. She made a few scrabbles to put the evidences together, unaware of the worried expression of Wendy every time she glanced at her. She felt her looking at her, but without a right thing to say, she deemed as fool to try to explain something that neither she was sure that was happening.

_Oh right Cass, let’s see what we have. Mom and Dad disappeared, so the car. I just fell to ground as if they had never been there, what means they never were there? No, that’s absurd, even if was that what actually happened._

_No… Dad! What did he say? Something like…! Something like “Everything is gonna change” but what was going to change?_

The metaphysical panic rained again over her, and her mind put an effort of try to make a plan.

_Ok, step 1: Find out who can help me. I’m alone now… No, no no no no! not get scared not get scared!_

Cassie begun to breath harder, trying to not hyperventilate. The quiet fear crept over her nape, almost as if it was taking out her breath.

_Ok ok ok. Again. Step 1: Find who can help me. For now, I have Wendy. Step 2: Try to find out what happened with Mom and Dad… If Wendy does not know about me that means that…_

Cassie’s breath made harder again, and she felt how involuntary water streams ran again across her cheeks, feeling them very, very cold. She shrugged, holding her elbows, trying the hardest to not sob; she had to be brave, she had to be strong.

_No! Don’t cry you silly girl! Still in Step 2. Ok, I’m here so, if I had never existed, how I am here?_

Cassie’s eyes opened and dropped to her chest, right to the purple, bright shard that laid over her white shirt. Her fear over her fell from her a little, the enough to allow her to think logically.

_This thing… Glittered and shifted erratically before the… the… the light! And the weird feeling. What means… Dad saved me. So he knew this was meant to happen, but how?_

“What’s the next step” Wendy interrupted her. Cassie looked at her, slightly confused. She glanced at her kindly, almost nostalgic, over the corner of her eye.

“How… how do you…?” Cassie tried to say, unable to figure a reason which could explain why Wendy guessed her mind rail.

“You move your face as your father when he makes plans in his mind” Wendy asked, as she turned to left.

“Do you… believe me?” Cassie asked, more confused than before. Wendy slicked her bottom lip quickly, thinking in how to say it.

“Well… Isn’t the first time I think wrong about how a supernatural thing develops so…” Wendy began to say. She remembered the three years which Mabel was lost and how ignorant really was about Dipper’s whereabouts regarding the search for her, and felt like a brick falling at the bottom of her stomach. The long ago spared guilt returned to her, but she remained quiet; if the girl was true in her words, she would do everything she could to do things right this time. “I want to make this right this time, and my step 1 is to believe you, indeed”. Cassie smiled, feeling the usual coolness of Wendy pouring in every one of her words.

_Step 3: Find out what happened to the world, but first, Step 2._

“Wendy I have this kind of… theory, of what happened, but first I have to know” Cassie said, gulping.

“Tell me then, girl” Wendy replied.

“What happened with Mom and Dad?”. Cassie asked, serious. Wendy moved her jaw without separate her lips, uncomfortable. Then she stared at the road; they were near Gravity Falls, only minutes far, so she would not have much time to respond with all their story of lost and grief and rivers of tears, and above all, the story about a ravenous woman of an underground race that wanted to be a mother. So she answered instead, with the part of the happy ending she knew well.

“They live in Piedmont, and visit Gravity Falls every summer since… since they got 20. They live together on an apartment and go to college. I visited them once and…” Then Wendy remembered, certain little details about her visit, details she didn’t take so much attention, but with the girl aside her, made perfect sense. An unsettling perfect sense. Then she looked at Cassie again, trying to not lose attention of the road, and saw her deeply depressed, looking at front.

“We… we don’t live on Piedmont. They’ve not lived on Piedmont since they were 15 years old, before I…” Cassie begun to breath hard again, trying to hold her crying again.

_No, no no no no no no! Don’t cry please don’t cry please don’t…! This is not the moment! Ok, ok. Step 4: Find out why what happened to the world happened._

Wendy looked at her, unsure of what to do, as Cassie regained her composure. Then turned her face to her, and made a question.

“Do you… believe Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford will believe me?”. Wendy’s face lost color, and her eyebrows fell a little, giving her a sad glance. She stepped on the last stop sign before the entrance to Gravity Falls, in the middle of the Floating Cliffs, and sighed. Then she looked at Cassie, and began to tell her about the story that she never wanted to talk.

_Mabel got lost in the forest when she was 13, and everyone in town went on search. But when the search failed, Dipper remained searching for her. He got… quite obsessed for it, and spent every moment of day figuring how to find her and working on it. Even he made arrangements so he could stay in Gravity Falls while his parents remained on Piedmont; went to middle school, reported to a therapist, the whole pack. But as the years passed everyone around him, including…_

“You” Cassie completed the sentence, as she went out of the truck, in front of what used to be the Mystery Shack. There were no more big letters above the roof, nor signs around the place. The colors of facade had gotten pale and depressing, as if no one had lived there in years. But for her surprise, it was Wendy’s home now,

“Yes, I fear” Wendy replied, getting out too. She sighed again, and got the keys out of her pockets as she proceeded.

_Everyone began to believe he was just fixed in his grief and that Mabel was dead since a long time ago. He looked every time more depressed, and got in trouble with townsfolk more frequently than before. We were losing him, but at difference from Mabel, we were losing him slowly, piece by piece; every day was a little less Dipper, and he got a little more just a grieving guy and… conflicted about things he never said to anyone of us.._

_When he was 17, his parents lost the patience, and his dad went for him. I remember that night very clear: I was called to the shack ‘cause Dipper ran into the forest, returned and escaped again. He got lost for hours, and we hadn’t any sight of where he was. So we just waited. And a few hours later, he came back with Mabel! It was a miracle. Everyone there including…_

“You!” Cassie interrupted, giggling a little, as she moved her spoon on her cereal bowl. The kitchen looked as old as the rest of the shack. The same old roof lamp that once iluminated the Pines family was now iluminating them.

“Hey! Don’t get fun of it, it’s a tragic story!” Wendy responded, smiling. She glanced at Cassie for a moment, admiring how an amalgamation of their parents’ best strengths she was. She just was so… dipperish and mabelish, but also she was something else. Something in her was entirely hers, something of an odd bit of wishful and braveness she held, the way she digested the metaphysical tragedy she was living, how she was dealing with the fact she was never born; where she was getting all the strength from, Wendy wasn’t sure, but she was sure she was going to help her.

“Ehm.. Wendy?” Cassie asked, unsure. Then Wendy got aware she was left silent an awkward amount of time, still with her spoon on her mouth, and quickly put it out.

“Oh right, sorry!” Wendy replied, rubbing her nape.

_Well, everyone cried and cheered her. She got clean, they slept a little, and in the morning they were ready for all the stuff that came after. But the weird things passed long time after that. She looked… Scarred for some reason, and neither she nor Dipper told us where he found her or why she didn’t returned in the three years she got lost or what dangers returned them so injured as they were when returned. Of course, they invented a credible story to convince police and their parents, but I perfectly knew it was a lie._

_So, they returned home and we stayed here. They didn’t returned in three years; thus when they went back they were much better, but something on them was… Odd. They didn’t go on search of adventure anymore or ventured out of town, so we spent a pretty normal summer. The next year Stan died for a heart attack; he was alone in the shack when happened. Soos managed the shack for a year but he was… pretty sad for himself. So he knew a girl called…_

“Melody” Cassie interrupted, holding the sheet in her hands, covering her body over the crackly bed. Her face was sad, a brief tone of grief being noted on her.

“Yes! Melody. Wow, if I’d don’t know you’re real, I’d get a little scared, girl” Wendy replied, chuckling.

_So, Melody and Soos moved to Portland next year, and I ended acquiring the shack. Of course, the Mystery Shack was not anymore, but I made sure that, every time they decide to come back, they could find a home here. So I live here since then, and every summer they come here, and we spend time in town, as usual. But they never dare to go into the woods again, and I know it’s somethingthere that they had lost forever, and they will never go back for it…_

“Forever…” Cassie said to herself, crying in silence. Wendy gave her the goodnight a few hours ago, but she just couldn’t sleep. She stared to the diagonal wooden walls that sealed the attic, trying to get brave again. She could distinguish, even with the weak moonlight; the bits of dust stacked above her side of the wall, in sites where once were tape strips holding a thousand of papers, several of them, signs with “missing” written in big letters with her mother’s face above. She felt a deep loss feeling, not for her, but instead for them. None of the odds they had in her version of their life had compared to the dangers they really were in during the imprisonment years. The suffering, the wild things that almost killed them more than once, the joy lost. She glanced at the triangular ceiling once more, as she was falling slowly into sleep, as in her last conscious moments, she distinguished a few claw marks over the ceiling’s wood. Before she could feel scared for it, her eyes shut straight, and she fell on a deep sleep.

Unknown to her, the purple shard of her necklace began to shift their symbols violently again…


	11. To The Void

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Could've Been King has escaped, and the Doctor must go in his pursuit...

\- The Capitol, Planet Gallifrey, Year 6^5%12? of The Last Great Time War, Universe #### (CLASSIFIED)

The TARDIS materialized in the middle of the War Council’s basis, scaring away more than a single time lord. The Doctor got out, utter angry. Cardinal Ollistra, wearing her collar proudly, looked at him, as she was busy in the holographic planes of certain battle with other war planners, almost ignoring him.

“Ollistra! You planned this didn’t you?” The Doctor said as he got close to her quickly.

“My Lord Doctor, I’m glad you got here well” Ollistra replied, proud and stern.

“What were you planning that was going to happen there? We lost a half million of soldiers! That was carnage!” The Doctor said to her, furious.

“Don’t lose your head Doctor, We’ve send a message to the Third Regiment, the battle has been prevented at full” Ollistra said, more proud. The Doctor made fists, holding his urges to smack her so hard she should have to regenerate.

“Don’t you have a single idea of what happened there?” The Doctor asked, contained. The three time lords that were aside Ollistra got a few steps back, sensing his rage. They knew of the Doctor’s movements in the war, heard the stories directly form the soldiers who fought alongside him in horrid events as the battles of The Forests of Garsennon and the infamous Skull Moon, and so they knew it was correct to fear him. “The Could’ve Been King stole the dimensional node. Right in this moment his army could be out this universe, recruiting who knows what horrors out there”. The entire War Room got silent, so was Ollistra, at least for a while, as all the eyes in room were put over her.

“In that case, there’s something we can do” Ollistra replied, recovering her proud stance…

The engineers worked furiously, installing the ram-like piece of machinery over the TARDIS’s console, as the Doctor just looked at them, unsettled. The TARDIS wasn’t enjoying the experience, neither he was.

“Not even Lord President Rassilon knows about this” Ollistra began to talk to him. “Long ago, in The War, we feared The Enemy could stole one of the items we stored on the Never Vault, so we copied every single of them in The Matrix, so we could access to them if the originals get lost. So, according to the plan, the Never Vault passed to be a mere decoy to The Enemy, so if he could steal the originals, we could copy them so many times we need and counterattack. But after you restored Gallifrey we discovered that The Matrix wasn't allowing us to make more than one sigle copy" Ollistra kept explaining, getting in the TARDIS.

“So the whole battle was for nothing” The Doctor said, crossing his arms.

“We hoped the Daleks to come, but we never expected another income, less for the Could’ve Been King”.

“Do you really know where we are when you are planifying all of this from your confortale office?” The Doctor asked.

“I know what you think about us Doctor, but we’ve not lost the ground about this. We live in strange times, and the enemy is getting creative, so we must get too. Desperate problems require desperate solutions; with foes as the Could’ve Been King, we must act as if we are very, very desperate”.

“It is ready Cardinal” An engineer said, getting straight, as he cleaned his hands from dust.

“Well done. Go back to the docking bay and wait for further instructions” Ollistra said. The engineers got out from the TARDIS, as The Doctor looked at her.

“Are you going to erase their memories if I don’t get wrong” The Doctor said, untangling his arms.

“Yes. We can’t allow under any circumstance that Rassilon gets aware of what we’re doing here. So, I expect you’ll never talk about this, to anyone. This is an imperative mission, we can’t let nothing to interfere” Ollistra said, determined.

“Don’t make any other madness while I’m not here”.

Ollistra got out of the TARDIS, and turned back. The TARDIS dematerialized quickly, winding around de bay.

“Good luck Doctor, good luck” Ollistra said, unsure if she was being sincere in her words.


	12. Adrift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mason is trapped in the heart of the Creation, maybe forever, but an unknown man in war dust could change her destiny...

Twisting around, again and again and again. It was all that Mason could do where she was. In the verge of puke, in the verge of scream, and the verge of descend into madness. She tried with her full force to stop her ceaseless spinning, but there was nothing to hold on or gain impulse. She moved her arms desperately with no results, and then her legs, with fewer results. Unspeakable, infinite horrors crossed all blurred at her sight, devoid of direction and sense. Slowly, the horrendous environment around her began to make itself clearer as she begun to get still, and soon her stomach caught the feeling of be freefalling.

Finally she stayed still in a sole direction, and looked around her. She begun to scream ceaselessly, aloud and soaked in utter horror…

_The Doctor began to adjust the dials and buttons of the new parts of the console, as the TARDIS moved her cylindrical pieces in the time rotor, unsure of what The Doctor was thinking to do…_

_“Don’t fear my old girl, this coordinates will not get you mad… I hope” The Doctor said to her as the TARDIS was still making uncomforted noises. The new piece was silver in color, full of cables attached in holes pinned in the TARDIS’s console, dangerously close to the telepathic circuits._

_The whole plan was in his eyes, an unexplainable, senseless and irresponsible madness, but there was no other choice, and he was the only one capable to handle the situation without try to turn it into favor of the war (and burn in the process as many other fellows did before).He was going to an unholy place where none sane time lord had gone before him: The Void. He was sure whatever he could find had to be filled in craziness beyond words, as the continuous incursions he faced in all those centuries had given him a clue. But the Time War was raging across the entire History, and he couldn’t allow to it to spread to another realities, not again. The war had to be contained, for the sake of the whole Creation._

_He pulled the lever, and the TARDIS dematerialized._

The Nightmare Realm was so confuse and wild as Grunkle Ford described it before. Shifting, gloating colors twistingly liquated that engulfed impossible horizons; unmeasurably big spheres (or at least looked like spheres) that comprised entire dimensions for it selves and echoed the noises of a billion souls, asteroids littering in the near space, quick and deformed beasts moving around insanity-inducing structures without a name, and a constant sense of burnt hair, were all she could perceive.

Above her, her home dimension, getting every moment farther, and beneath her, a shining, diffuse shape which she was falling to. She felt something like at first she interpreted as wind, pulling her into the brightness with intolerable speed, letting her arms and legs to dangle effortlessly. Then, she hear the squealing noises.

She turned herself around to see what was producing them, and saw, dismayed, a flock of big Eyebats cornering her from every direction. They were flying graciously and powerful, waving her blood-colored translucent wings, maneuvering with the help of the odd winds that were pulling everything else to the unbearable brightness. They squealed aloud, making circles around Mason with seemingly playful intentions, as they got closer and closer to her.

“No way freaks!” Mason screamed, pulling out a little lamp out of her jacket. She pointed at them, but the light’s path itself deformed with her falling, and an eyebat turned aggressive in the moment the twisted light hit its body. It shrugged and extended its wings, going in her direction.

_The cloister bell sounded across every corner of the TARDIS at the moment she materialized in The Void. The main room shook widely, making The Doctor to hold himself from the console’s poles. The time rotor brought out sparks, as the red lights of the main room turned on as the cloister bell intensified._

_“Hold on, hold on!” The Doctor said high. “I’ll see what’s out there”. The Doctor grabbed the console’s screen to see the outsides, but the TARDIS blocked the cameras. “You, coward girl!” The Doctor said._

_He let out the pole, and walked wiggly to the TARDIS doors, trying to not fall to the shaky floor. The opened the doors in a single move of his arms, and instantly held the borders. His pupils widened, and his breath got out. “What a mess” The Doctor sighed. Then he heard another alarm over the noise of the cloister bell. He looked back; the screen was brighting with an alert. He closed the doors, falling over the floor for the constant shakes. “I hope is something good” The Doctor said himself, and lifted up. He walked to the console the fastest he could, and grabbing a pole with one hand, and the screen with another, he saw what was going on._

_“Alert, alert. Human life form detected. Alert, alert. Human life form detected” Was written in wide yellow letters, and immediately the TARDIS showed a rambling map of the outsides and a pitching yellow point several meters from him. His face drawn surprise, in disbelief of what he was seeing. Around her, a multitude of red points were turning around the yellow point._

The eyebat rammed against Mason, making her to let the lamp go away, and her head pained horridly. Another eyebat smacked her right after, and suddenly she was being ambushed by the entire flock. She begun to lose the consciousness with every punch, as her last breaths went out of her chest.

“Mabel…” She whispered weakly, before her eyes closed.

_The Doctor opened the doors again, with a sonic weapon attached to his bandolier, and a long metallic rope in his right hand. He saw at the distance, a flock of enormous, yellow-pupiled eyes mounted in red membranous wings, charging against what looked like a girl. The Doctor attached himself with the end of the rope and let himself to go out into the unholy spaces._

_He suddenly felt the whipping of powerful, airless winds which drawled everything beneath, as he approached to the flock; he sensed the scent of hair burning, and tried to not put so much attention to the gargantuan structures that floated in the distance. Then he held the sonic weapon in hands, and begun to shot the flying beasts, one by one, as he got closer. The winged eyes flew away, scared, and he reached the girl, grabbing her waist. Then he attached his sonic weapon again in his bandolier, and pulled the rope twice. At the moment, the rope begun to drag them inside the TARDIS._

_The girl was unconscious, but definitively alive, so he didn’t take much attention to the rest of her traits, as they were getting closer to the TARDIS. Then they entered, but as soon as she entered the TARDIS, the shaking intensified. The doors closed immediately, and the cloister bell intensified as if the TARDIS itself was screaming. The force of the wiggle pulled the girl out of her arm, crashing her against the time rotor and falling into the ground. The Doctor grabbed himself in the one of the coralline pillars, as the dematerialization activated itself…_


	13. A Sad Boy over a Bank

It was nearly midnight, over a bank illuminated for a high lamppost. Over the wooden bank, laid sit a sad boy with bronzed skin and pointed dusty blonde hair. The hands at the end of his powerful arms grabbed a bar of the bank with so force that one could say it was hurting. But he didn’t feel it at all, or at least, he didn’t care. His orange shirt with a little sign of the Tent of Telepathy on its left side was soaked in sweat, evidence of all the distance he ran until reach the place, just where he was, from an unsaid long distance. His green shoes were dirty for the long run away he made, and his pants had catch more than a stain in the way. He breathed with force, as he constantly looked to his shoes, unable to say a single word. He was frowning constantly, his eyes shut ominously, and his lips trying with unsaid determination to not tremble pathetically. The whole night was just too much for him; nor even his tiredness for the run or the soft scent of the trees behind him could calm him down or distract him from his constant, self-loathing thoughts. He just felt too horrible, too malevolent to have the right to calm down. His guilt was eating him, and the unspoken truth was torturing his senses beyond any bad thing that happened to him before. In the supposed top of his life, Aiden Zimmerman had touched bottom.

Everything began in the middle morning, when he received a phone calling from Leigh. He was on middle work out time in the school’s gym, so he deemed the call as important. In that precise moment, he’d liked to have done everything but answer his cellphone.

“You’ll never guess what I just saw ‘side the gas station” Leigh said with a hipped, mischievous voice. His left eyebrow raised at first, but slowly lowered when he began to listen every one of her words. At first, he felt angered of such thing to even been thought by Leigh, but as more she insisted that her words were true, his rational doubts faded away. Then an unscripted anger began to fill his chest and echoing, rude words began to come out in response. He suddenly felt to have been humiliated by a capricious, malevolent freak, and he felt fair to gain his revenge, for all the hurt and guilt he felt before.

Then they saw after classes and begun to formulate a plan.

“Are you sure they’ll be there?” Aiden asked.

“A million percent sure, those freaks are noisy in their plans, I heard Mabel squealing out in bath” Leigh responded. Then he smiled, sure of his movement. They had planned to go to theater to the neighbor city, a place supposed to be far from anyone who could recognize them, at a specific time at a specific movie, so he could calculate his movement at perfection. He insisted to do it alone, so Leigh didn’t make much effort to make him do it otherwise. So, returning home, he said their parents he was going to theater, thing they didn’t suspected at all. So he took a bath, dressed and made ready for the facade of going in a hang out with friends. A little bit of him got poetical, so he put his orange shirt of the Tent of Telepathy, an old item Mabel gave him a happy noon, long before to be a couple.

So he drove all the way to the cinema, and waited in the car, making sure he’d parked near the exit of the cinema. For the sake of the plan, he even put a black capped sweater, to not be recognized from the farness. So everything he should do was to take a picture. A single picture to expose their deviance, a single picture to put their whole world upside down, a single picture to get his revenge for being used by such a freak like Mabel Pines was. But then the moment passed, and he saw their side of the story.

He was too far to listen something about they said, but judging for the exchange of glances, the tearful faces, and the long hug after a passionate kiss, that they were not precisely fearless about what they were doing. Anything like the cynical, malevolent attitude he hoped to find.

Then his mind began to do the math, taking blurred comments of Leigh about what she saw and their whole closure-like thing with Mabel that day in detention. And just as they went, he fell straight on the truth, the horrid, tragic and heartbreaking truth. They were not carefree about what they were doing, in fact; they were struggling for a mutual, sincere love, they pained for make a place of this new condition in their lives, they were doing their little fight against everything to be happy.

And then, Aiden Zimmerman, the guy who always did the things right, got aware of his mistake, and felt epically stupid. Without thinking it twice, he got out of the car and ran, ran and didn’t stop of running. He ran from the guilt of almost ruin the life of who meant so much for him, the sole person who always was kind and sincere with him, and ran from how stupid he felt to effortlessly leave himself to be corrupted by a fool gossip girl. And above all, ran from the possibility of the futileness of his entire life of goals and success, because no matter how powerful or successful he could be, if he chooses the wrong path in his actions, the whole darn world could simply crumble between his fingers like dry clay. He felt like a monster, a hideous and evil monster.

So he ended running across unknown streets into the unforgiving darkness so fast that if he was being tested in some sort of speed prove, he easily could overrun any winner of the Tour de France. He scared several people and surely almost got hit by a car more than once time; and in his self-imposed insanity period, surely he knocked down several house fences. Three hours after, he was sit over the wooden bank with his sweater lost a long way ago, lost in a foreign city, cornered by his actions and misdeeds.

His sobs were almost on the verge of rip his way across his throat, and he was about to let himself to give up to the most tormenting weep time he could’ve had suffered in his entire life. He felt himself disgusting, utterly disgusting…

Then he heard a noise behind him.

It was the enough otherworldly to force him to give it attention, so it was the enough to return him tothe world. He jumped out of the bank, and looked behind the trees. Nothing; just wind and the far noises of unseen cars. He stood breathing hard, suddenly feeling the tiredness of his run, almost out of the wide sidewalk. But then he heard the noise again, Blurring but the enough aloud to be distinguished, the sound of the breath of a really, really big thing. His mind almost short circuited in the act of remember about the wild, carnivorous things Mabel told him existed in the forests of a far little town in Oregon, clashing between his endless guilt and the real danger in which such things were materializing.

Quickly, he pondered options.

_Trees? Heck, none tree can sound like that. A prank? Who the heck knows where I am, nor even I know where I am. So… Oh no._

The response jumped out from the trees at the moment, fast and wild. Aiden almost lost the balance over his feet, at the majestic sight of such a cosmic horror.

Big as his car, the human-like skinned beast stood in front of him, tackling what looked like broken and dirty nails over its finger-like appendages. The beast was shaped like a giant starfish, radially symmetrical, and Aiden could see, how a wheel of mismatched teeth poured from a squealing mouth under his apparent belly, hidden by its fingerish legs.

The human-like skin disgusted him deeply, and his constant tackling and contraption of his unseen mouth gave Aiden the hint of carnivorous intentions. How worthless he felt in that moment is hard to describe, but he began to make a checklist of all the things he regretted to do, mostly of them pretty recent. Not having inscribed in the high school’s hunting club, have listened to Leigh that afternoon, keep his fool plan, and have run across half a city. Then he felt that as a fair end to Aiden Zimmerman, being mauled and eaten by god who knows what messy thing from unknown hells; die before make more damage to the ones he love.

He closed his eyes, feeling his demise approaching, when another noise filled the air. Was like the rasping of two heavy leather pieces, or maybe like the sound of something faking wind noises, he could not guess properly. He opened the eyes, and the oscillating sound closed with the noise of a heavy fitment being put in ground, and saw how the huge beast retreated a few steps.

Aiden looked back him, and saw a big blue bow with a shining letter of a pair of white-windowed doors which reads “POLICE CALL BOX”. Just a moment after, the doors opened, and an old man in greyish jacket and bandolier got out, holding in his rugged hands a sort of silver big pistol, like taken out from a syfy low-budget movie.

“Put out the way boy” The old man screamed at him, and Aiden precipitated over the bank, falling over his hands above the bank’s backrest. He looked at the beast, and how translucent waves of nothing hit it, making it squeal aloud and move its gross fingers rhythmically. A pair of shoots and the beast fell unconscious above the pavement. “Come in boy, no time to explain” The old man said to him, as Aiden put on feet.

“Wha–who…” Aiden tried in vain to articulate, feeling himself out of reality. The old man looked much like him, even with the same pointy hairstyle he had since he had fourteen. Every part of the man’s face looked like an old version of his, and he could not even begin to guess the options.

“asking later, now move” The old man said, waving his hand into the door’s direction.

Against any rational idea, against his urges of hate himself, against any fear or unsureness, he walked right to the doors.


	14. The Second Shift

Cassie woke up, or, best saying, coughed aloud out of her bed. She seated over the bed, still coughing, and opened her eyes. Blurry as usual, she saw clouds of dust lifting from the bed, and desperately searched for her glasses on the bureau. She catched them, and quickly put them. For some reason, they weren’t broken anymore. She looked around, having awoken with a sort of different disposal of the furniture. The bed at the right was not there anymore; instead a bunch of cardboard boxes with funny names. Another bunch of wooden boxes, bigger than the cardboard ones, where splinted across everywhere else, being one of them in front of the bed. She looked at the blankets; they were white instead of blue, as they were when she fell asleep. The soft light of middle morning poured inside the room, and Cassie began to imagine what happened while she was sleeping. She took the die shard; it was shifting its symbols at the usual rhythm.

_Oh no. The reality changed when I was sleeping! What I’ll do now?_

Cassie guessed in the moment, that she was in an entire different timeline, and breathed hard, but softly. Then coughed hard again, and lifted off from the bed. She began to read the names of the cardboard boxes, in search of a clue about how the things were now.

_Oh right! Again. Step 1: Find… No. I’m pretty safe here let’s change the roll. Right, Step 1: Find out what happened to the world._

“DEE’S STUFF, TY’S STUFF, MABES’S STUFF, KITCHEN STUFF…” She had begun to read. The boxes weren’t dusty as the walls and the bed, so she guessed they were put there very recently. Then she walked to the wooden boxes, to see if they were a better hint. “SASCROTCH, PEGASSUS WINGS, THING WITH A WHOLE LOT OF TEETH IN A WHOLE LOT OF MOUTHS…”. For the size of the boxes, and they radically different shapes and names, Cassie concluded that they were exhibitions of the Mystery Shack, and not being dusty at all, she put them in the same time-lapse than the cardboard boxes. 

Cass began to draw a picture of the reality in which she had fallen this time, feeling more calmed than the first time, but still worried.

_Boxes with informal names… packed here. Mhmm, for the names, and the letter… That’s Mom’s box! And surely the DEE’S STUFF box is Dad’s box! If their boxes and the exhibition’s boxes are here, it means that they’re… I dunno, fixing something or painting or whatever. I did. I did!_

A wide smile ran wild on her face, she had found them. But then she saw again the second box, and a little bit of consternation grew on.

_Wait, then what’s Ty? Or who’s Ty? What’s the matter with Mom with put a ‘stuff’ label to short her annotations?!_

Cassie begun to ponder, as she proceeded to search on the floor for her shoes, with no result; they had gone.

_So my glasses were restored, but my shoes were sucked out from Reality, oh great._

So she thought that she could search on the boxes in search of a pair of shoes, but quickly dismissed; surely they had to be of pretty larger numbers. She had to get new shoes first, but right then a new concern grew on her mind.

_Oh dang, I found them. But how I’ll introduce myself to them? Somethin like a “Hello, sorry you can’t remember me but I’m your daughter from other timeline which you rescued with the aid of a magic crystal? Would they listen to me? No way, I mean, would I listen to myself? I’m insane! I’m insane! I’m insane! i’m inside an attic talking to a bunch of boxes about alternate timelines I WILL NEVER PULL THIS OFF!_

Cassie passed her hand over her forehead, frustrated. The whole thing could get really difficult in a really short time, knowing the aggressive tendencies of her mother towards menaces, and the hysteric behavior of his father.

_Waaaaaaaait a minute. My birthmark! That’s not much but is my best evidence. Yes. If they doubt, I’ll show it. But I have to figure a sort of… argument to introduce myself._

She began to think in the possibilities, as she walked to the door, opened it, finding herself in the upper hall, half upholstered as she predicted, run across the half-painted stairs and found herself in an empty lounge, half painted. Then she began to search in each room of the shack, finging every one of them on a similar state. Some of them were empty, with rasped walls and white paper over the floor; others, were with the tapestry half over the walls and the furniture covered in white blankets. She screamed for the whole cabin, searching for their parents.

“Mooo-…! Ups, Mabeeeel! Dipeeeer!” She screamed, but no response was heard. The shack was empty, unsettlingly empty. She went to the empty gift shop and tried to open the door. It was locked.

_They must be out so…_

She returned to the kitchen, remembering having seen a calendar over the table. Once in the kitchen, she grabbed the calendar, and readed the note wrotten in pink, glittering ink. She smiled; surely her mother wrote that.

‘_Sunday. Sprite Visit!!’_

_The Sprite Glades… I know where they are._

Cassie put back the calendar over the table, and ran back to the gift shop, unlocked the door and went out. She turned around in search of the golf car, but it wasn’t there. Then she looked around the backyard, and her jaw dropped, sighting the complex set of attractions covered with enormous blue tarpaulins. It was hard to distinguish their shapes, but they seemed well built, all majestic and impotent in their sizes. Cassie smiled; she had found a timeline where they parents not only thrived, they succeeded in accomplish their dreams and stay together in the only other place in world they could call home. But the golf car was still out of sight

_No, the golf car always is on the front!_

Cassie ran around the shack, until she found herself in the front door. She read a sign of “Closed by maintenance”, and then looked around the whole place. A greyish van was parked in front, but the golf car was not there. Cassie looked back, at the forest. Surely they came there in the golf car, so she had no way to come except…

_This is gonna hurt a lot._

Cassie looked at her socked feet, and her eyebrows lowered, worried. Then she held the die shard in her necklance. She had no way to predict when the next change should come, but based in the last, she had not much time. But she had to try. Cassie sighed aloud, and with no more to do, she walked into the woods.


	15. A Tale of Three Siblings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a typical morning for the Pines triplet, when special things are going to happen... not all of them are good ones.

Tyrone and Dipper adjusted mutually every cloth of theirs, trying to get the best looks of their hats and shirts. Usually, they couldn’t bother in do it out of work hours (certain grunklish habit inherited on them) but that was a very special day, and they were procuring to look the best possible with their usual clothes. Suddenly Mabel came in the kitchen, and smiled them in an undeniable filtering way, curling a lock of her hair between her fingers. They looked at her briefly, admiring her green long shirt that covered until her skirt, with short but admiring smiles, and then resumed to their activities.

“Are you guys gonna make another striptease for the Mabel?” She said, recharging herself over the entrance’s corner.

“Nop, sorry” Tyrone answered.

“We’re making sure we look presentable” Dipper said, making final adjustments to Tyrone’s red hat.

“Come on guys, we’re talking about things that fly around the whole place full naked, I don’t think they’ll notice our love bites” Mabel replied, smiling wider as she saw how their faces got color. Simultaneously, they shook their heads, and made a last adjustment to their respective hats.

“Ready. Anyway Mabes, we want to make our best” Dipper said.

“Well, it’s time to go, my boys” Mabel said, grabbing the calendar in the wall. “You guys aren’t going to get blushed in front of a bunch of sprites for yourselves”.

“Certainly not for ourselves” Tyrone responded.

Then the three got out the shack, got up into the golf car (with Dipper driving, as usual), and went into the forest, killing the silence with merry conversations about whatever gets on the way.

That day was special, because some months ago, Sprinkles itself (or herself, as Mabel always pointed) came to the shack to invite them to a very special event in the sprite society. Every ten cycles (Something like 170 years according to Dipper) the Elder One, the oldest sprite alive, reunited everyone in the glade to tell _Da Ancien Storee_, that according with Sprinkles, it was “The last vestige of the ancestors, the story of how the Spritefolk came to be and a lesson to the young ones”; so the triad (especially Dipper) took the matter as a great honor. According to Sprinkles, the Elder One itself invited them, having heard the stories of the noble humans who saved the forest from the Rainless Cloud. For Dipper, Mabel and Tyrone had happened more than six years. And was a really happy amount of time, in which they consolidated the odds of their relationship, made a fortune for themselves with the shack, and made a name for themselves in the town and the forest. Gravity Falls thrived thanks to them, and the forest paranormal folks had a deep respect for them, for all their help. But also they had misdeeds. Even with their success, their relationship with their parents went distant to the verge of the extinction, and apparently, the Grunkles disappeared forever. Every certain time they tried to communicate, and every certain time they failed and cried. Their happy ending still had having sad parts, but in words of Mabel “We can’t be soap-opera’s good material if we haven’t a proper familiar tragedy”. Dipper and Tyrone felt a little shudder when she said that last time they tried to communicate and failed, but they weren’t sure why.

So they went on the road to the forest, heading into the Sprite Glades in less than a half hour. The three of them got out at the same time, and crossed the crooked wooden entrance. The sprites that flew around them waved gently, as the ones which were over the branches of the trees greeted them throwing little seeds at the ground, “a wedding habit” in words of Sprinkles. Soon they reached the center of the glades, and over an enormous rock, a human sized sprite (a height considered gigantic in sprite terms) with its skin made of stone, was sit over the top. Around them, the multitude of sprites reached seat were they could; over the ground, taking the texture of moss and mushrooms, over the branches, making it selves of leafs and wood, and floating in the air, taking the mantle of the winds around them. Sprinkles appeared in front of them, and saluted them gently.

“I’m glad you three are here, you had come in the right moment. Please, sit down, we have guarded places for all of you” Sprinkles said, putting her hands together. They sat in front a tree silently, as they felt the solemnity of the event. No single human had glimpsed what was going to happen in all the Sprite history, and surely no single human was going to see it again. Tyrone and Dipper held Mabel’s hands, one in every side, and smiled gently at the Elder One. It was hard to say, for a being without a face, but judging for its glittering eyes, it was smiling back at them. Then the Elder One proceeded to talk, in middle of an absolute silence, only interrupted briefly by some wind waves.

“How warm is my heart right now, for see you all of us safe and sound, to hear the stories of the ancestors. Feel comfortable, saviors of our forest, you are brothers and sister of our folk, from them onwards”. Surely, their glittering eyes reflected how proud they felt about be invested with such honor; no matter de hardness of their way, they thrived and had made others to thrive as well. “Now, I shall proceed to transmit the tale, of three powerful siblings, whose steps became ours…”

_There was once, on a distant world under strange skies, a proud race of greyish beings, slender and big as The Man, who mastered the power of make the reality to do their will. Under the regiment of wise kings and queens, who were infused with the power of the existence itself, these far peoples flourished and thrived for countless centuries in their strange, wild world._

_But the ages passed, and ther world began to die. Thus their powers became chains for them, because that powerful blood could not escape their doomed skies. So the last heirs of the crown, three brothers, split their power and two of them were able to escape, in search of a way to save their people. But they disappeared forever, and the king who stood alongside their people decided to make the maximum sacrifice. He gave away his part of the power, and used it to make some of their people to escape their doomed realm, as he and the others waited forever, for the coming of their brothers._

_Those blessed folks crashed against distant worlds, and one of them, the people whose steps preceded us, fell to this valley, a long time ago. With the passing of time, we were given eyes, to admire the new skies, and our skins let it selves to be shaped to the forms of the world. We infused in the world, and the world gave us a place. Now we live in this world, accomplishing the deeds of Nature, and we must remember it as a lesson to this, that no matter how powerful we can be, the only true power is the one which appears when we care one each other…_

Suddenly, the already cloudy skies began to get stormy, and rainless thunders began to cross the clouds. The sprites frenzied for no apparent reason and flew away in every direction, and the Elder One floated over the rock and ricocheted straight into the clouds. The Dipper, Mabel and Tyrone lifted from the ground, trying to no hit any flying sprite in the way. Then, from the farness, a horrid, crystalline sound began to approach to them in every direction…

-

Cassie ran across the forest, feeling the coming of the next change, desperately trying to reach the Sprite Glades. The impending sound was every time stronger, and the various creatures in the forest, possibly sensing the sound as her, ran wild everywhere. Her feet hurted tremendously, feeling the direct stomping with every tiny stone and pointy thing in the way, but she put aside that pain; she had to come at time, she had to do it…

_Inside the Dark Hall, in front of the weakest part of the huge, shiny machinery, the young crone saw angered the exchange of the glittery streams, seeing the one who was about to be replaced with a particular hatred. She was no meant to be there, and she had not fondnees for such place, but some dark feeling in her heart made her to be there. Her face drew scary factions, illuminated by the streams’ brightness, as she resolved what her heart was wanting to do._

_“Suffer forever, you freaks!” The young crone said, taking the shiny stream with her left hand and ripping it off violently. The whole place shaked and screamed windily, as she saw with disgusting delight how an entire state of reality crumbled between her fingers…_

“We have to find out what’s happening” Dipper said, determinate to help, making fists in his hands, in the moment Tyrone fell to the ground. He put one hand in his chest, as he tried to not scream for the pain he was feeling. Mabel and Dipper quickly put on knees, scared.

“Ty, what’s happening?” Mabel asked, holding with her hands, the hand Tyrone had over his paining chest. For no apparent reason the moment, his birthmark began to shine a blue, soft light, as Tyrone put a despaired face of realization, about what was happening to him.

“Mabel, you… you have to listen me every word I say…. Aargh!!” Tyrone tried to say, feeling how his guts began to crumble inside him. “Cassie. You must find Cassie. Don’t ask who she is, just do it!” Tyrone said aloud. “Dipper, here’s coming…” Then Tyrone put his eyes on the cloudy sky, so Mabel and Dipper saw above. A crystalline engulfment was over them like a tidal wave…

_Dipper opens his eyes, trying to register with his eyes where he is. He feels a cold, glassy ground beneath his nude body, and everywhere where he looks is misty and bluish. He raises from the cold floor, softly, unable to remember what happened before. But in his heart there is a deep loss feeling, and he’s not sure why._

_He walks a little, finding no change in the environment around him, when he sees someone far in front of him. As he approaches, the features become clearer, and worryingly familiar. Curly brown hairs, and a half toned back, of a nude person sit over the ground. He can guess that the person is hugging his own legs for the way he’s sat over the crystalline ground reflecting his shape._

_Soon he reaches the person, who turns his head to see him. Dipper gets scared at first at the glance of his own face looking him back. But then remembers, and his fear passes to be concern._

_“Tyrone?” Dipper says, with a definitively worried tone in his voice. Tyrone returns gives him back again, still sit over the ground. So Dipper walks around, sitting in front of him. Tyrone faces him, smiling sadly._

_“This is gonna be hard Dip” He says weakly._

_“What happens Ty? Why do you say that?” Dipper says, a little more confused._

_“I remember that if I can’t explain something clearly neither you, so I don’t know where to begin” Tyrone says, still smiling. Something in his face shows evident despair, and at the same time peace. “How can I say I’m dying if technically you’ll still alive?”_

_“Tyrone, we aren’t the same person, you know it…”_

_“Yes, I know, but it’s not full true, you know it too” Tyrone interrupts him. Dipper frowns, unable to understand where he wants to come with all of this._

_“You know what’s happening, don’t you?” Dipper asks, stern._

_“Something like that, more than know it, I feel it” Tyrone responds. He lifts his hand, admiring how tiny, very tiny cracks begin to appear in its palm. Then returns his hand to hug his leg. “I´m gonna disappear Dipper”._

_“What?! How can you know it?” Dipper replies, more concerned. He lifts briefly and crawls to him._

_“I can guess you’re feeling this too. As if the barriers that turns us into different persons get thinner every second”. Then Dipper recognizes the loss feeling as the thing Tyrone’s describing, and her concern turns into fear._

_“No.. No no no no! Tyrone don’t say that! Don’t say that”. Dipper crawls nearer and hugs him tightly. His heart sinks in the moment he can feel how Tyrone’s skin becomes slightly stonier with every moment. Sudden tears run across his cheeks, and he abruptly gets apart, fearing the drops to melt him._

_“It’s fine Dipper. At the end, we were always two roots of a single tree, and that’s fine. Now it’s my time to go, but I hope you remember me… But it’s a quite strange”. Tyrone chuckles, so Dipper too. Tyrone looks so in peace, and Dipper can’t even comprehend._

_“I’ll do everything that I can do to get you ba-“_

_“No” Tyrone interrupts him again. “Don’t do that. It’s fine. I was happy living the life we had, but now’s time to go back”._

_“Go back?” Dipper asks, frowning again. Then Tyrone puts in knees and presses his lips against his, holding his shoulders. Dipper’s frowning disappears, but despite the overhelming calm that he feels, he can’t hold his tears, because he knows it will be their last kiss. Then their lips get apart, and Tyrone smiles him._

_“Good bye Dips, see ya when you’re awake” Tyrone says a last time. Then he lifts, and gives him back, as he walks away slowly. “Let me be brave, please let me be brave” Tyrone murmurs to himself, as he feels how his entire body succumbs to the crumbling. His knees get cracked, and every last breath rips apart his lungs. But it doesn’t hurts anymore, and he is no more afraid, because he knows they’ll be a single one again. He stops suddenly, makes fists with his cracking hands, and falls in knees. The hit of his knees against the floor is enough to crack him whole, and that precise moment his entire body crumbles to dust over the ground, not letting a single piece of him. Dipper lifts, looking at the pile of lifeless dust._

_“Goodbye Tyrone, I’m glad to have met you” Dipper says, tearful…_

Dipper woke up in the middle of a sudden breath, his mind impossibly confused. He finds himself spooning Mabel, with their nude bodies under a purple blanket. He lifts his head over the pillow, to look around the place, and could distinguish in the darkness, the diffuse shapes of the furniture of her room, slightly cleared by the various colorful spotlights she had in the walls. He rested back his head over the pillow, his nose getting against her hair. He closed his eyes, smiling, as he tried to ignore a little bit of full heartbrokenness in the depths of his mind, something he deemed immediately to some diffuse aspect of a forgotten dream. Soon, he fell deeply asleep, succumbed by a strange relief gotten from nowhere. How little he knew, of everything he just lost in the nothingness; for now, he had everything he needed between his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on the fic "Wedge" of Fallsontoapit (lost source; Tumblr.com)


	16. Not to be Named Like That Anymore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes are trying to adapt to the situation, but first they have to deal with themselves, and their old demons behind them...

_The Doctor woke up in the floor, in complete silence. He suddenly lifted, looking around the main room. The TARDIS wasn’t making any noise at all, and the girl he rescued from The Void laid asleep on a corner, with her head in front of a coralline pillar. He sighed relieved, at the sight of her chest moving; a clash like she had could had killed any human. But she was still alive, a little bleeding in her forehead, but he could swear she was bleeding before she came in to the TARDIS. Then he remembered where supposedly they should be, and went back to the console. Quickly he configured the screen to give himself an idea of the surroundings, and he gave no credit to where he vas._

_“Oakland, USA. Planet Sol III, Mutter’s Spiral?!” He said aloud. It was impossible, it had to be. He moved an unmeasurable distance across the wild space between the universes and he just landed on the entrance of a park in a suburban space on America. Before to even have the chance of theorize, the screen’s map pitched an alarm. In front of the TARDIS, there was a yellow point, and in front of it, a red point. His mind began to work, and he concluded quickly what was the situation. With no time to lose, he took the sonic weapon and walked out of the TARDIS._

_Then he made a quick analysis of the surroundings around him: It was night, and in front of him, a couple of meters a teenaged boy was about to be attacked by a car-sized finger-like mockery of a starfish, surely a stowaway from The Void. With no time to lose, he charged the weapon and shouted the youngster._

_“Put out the way boy” The Doctor said. The boy quickly recharged over the bank at his left, and five rounds rapid were enough to put the beast on the ground. The Doctor sighed, as the boy got up over the ground, when The Doctor noticed something in the boy. His pointy hairstyle was just like his, and his face was practically a young version of his. A shuddering feeling ran across his back, as he remembered some old teaching of his master Borusa, back on his younghood in the Academy._

_“It is theorized, that if there are parallels from an individual or object dwelling in The Void, they will precipitate one each other” The Doctor heard in his mind. It had to be a coincidence, given the fact his actual face was the last one of several he had before, but The Doctor had lost confidence in such explanations a long time ago._

_“Wha–who…” He heard the boy rambling incoherently. The Doctor guessed that he recognized his own face in him, so he made the next logical movement._

_“asking later, now move” The Doctor said, waving his hand to order him to come inside the TARDIS…_

Aiden entered through the doors, hoping to find a quite snuggly space. How he was feeling himself confortable entering in such a little space was something he deemed to the fact that the blue box appeared from the nothingness, surely it was worth of it. But instead he found himself on a bigger, bigger place. It was a a circular hall with walls filled with white, round things as the holes of a very thin strainer. Six huge pillars with stony appearance extended from floor to ceiling, which was littered by tangled cables all around. He could not believe, and full of confusion he got out the blue box. He turned back, losing in the weird feeling of see the entrance of such a little box leading to a wider place. His urges to walk around the box could more, so after 5 rounds he had no choice but believe to his own eyes. Impossibly puzzled, he entered back to the blue box, finding the old man in front of the hexagonal console at the center of the hall, moving complex mechanisms he had not enough mental straightness to put much attention about its features.

“It is… It is… It is _bigger_ from inside” Aiden murmured to him, pointing back at the doors with a thumb. The old man smiled, as if he was remembering happier times, and looked at him.

“Well, it’s always satisfying to hear the people say it, it puts ground to the situation” The old man said in raspy, deranged voice. He definitively sounded happy, as he could hear, and a thousand questions began to fill Aiden’s mind. The old man surely guessed his thoughs due his confused face, so he talked to him to brief the situation. “Questions later boy, for now just stay where you are, I will do something very delicate” the old man said. The doors closed behind Aiden, and a plastic-like huge stretching sound filled the room for a few seconds. “Ready, the creature will be contained until I can return it to The Void” the old man said. Aiden made a look confirming he completely lost it, feeling like he was losing from something. “What? I am not a savage as you can see” the old man inquired. “You can begin with your name boy, and stay still, I had not finished” the old man said, with full confidence. It was a full stranger inside a stranger machine in the middle of the strangest situation in which he had been at his whole life, if his emotional overload had not been enough for the universe to streech him to madness. But the strangest of all, was that he was fine with it. As if it that was something he had suspected should exist, and now was confirming. His mind drove him to the stories Mabel told him.

“Aiden. My name is Aiden” He said, trying to feel the most sure possible, feeling that new things were waiting for him. Maybe the completely new situation distracted from his everlasting guilt, or maybe he felt like he was putting his efforts on a bigger well, he didn’t know. The only he knew was he had no the enough force to go back and face what he almost had done, so he didn’t care much where this new situation could drive him too.

Aiden looked at the old man, and his confidence in his decision faded away. The man made a worried look, and then glanced at him.

_“Scanning. Scanning” The TARDIS’s female voice pitched. The Doctor made the same analysis on the boy for a third time, trying to get a mistake, but the result was the same. “Scan complete. Result: The Doctor” The TARDIS’s voice responded; The Doctor almost could swear he heard a little of joy in the automatic voice._

_“That is impossible! It cannot be” The Doctor replied, ore uneased for the response._

_“The biodata analysis corresponds to a single match. Result: He is The Doctor” The automatic voice responded. Now The Doctor really could swear he heard joy in the automatic voice. He passed a hand for his face, disdained, and then looked at the boy, because there was only a possible answer to that response._

Aiden caught something at the corner of his fision field, and looked at his left, and jumped in fear. with a “Wow!” A brown haired girl with a cap laid unconscious along a pillar, and he could distinguish a brief stream of dried blood over her forehead.

“She is dead?” He asked fearful.

“No, she is not, she is just sleeping. Believe me, she had a very hard time out there” the old man responded. Aiden sighed; he was not in _that_ kind of new situation. The man stepped out the console, walking to him. “Well, I guess you want answers, as I want too from you”

“I think so…” Aiden said, more firm.

Suddenly, the doors put red hot and began to emit steam, and the hall’s floor trembled. Aiden fell over his hands, and the old man stumbled back to the console. The huge, cylindrical pillar in the middle began to rotate its inner, glassy pieces, and a repetitive sound alike to the drumming of a giant bell echoed across the huge room. The light flickered continuously between white and red, as the old man held himself from the console, moving the complex mechanisms.

“No, you don’t!” The old man said, as he rotated, switched and pulled a multitude of mechanic elements, with no apparent order. Then the fuss ceased. And Aiden lifted. The old man looked enraged, so he thought that definitively it had to be with an issue of his incumbency. “Siege mode. Oh no. We are in siege mode” he old man said, walking away the console.

“What means that?” Aiden asked.

“It means… that we will have a pretty good time to talk I fear”. The old man replied, sitting in the short staircase that leaded to the entrance.

“We’re trapped here or something?” Aiden asked, feeling his fear increasing.

“Something like that. Nothing can get in and nothing can get out. Something out there is destabilizing the entire structure of the timeline of your universe, and the TARDIS doesn’t recognize the new surroundings” The old man replied. Aiden felt a little bit of defeat in his tone, and knew his certain end was not so far from it was before. He sat aside, as his tiredness returned to him, stronger than ever. If he only had not listened Leigh, he hadn’t been in the right moment to be almost devoured and then trapped forever in a sort of syfy machine. Then he looked at the old man, and felt a familiar feeling in his gaze. He looked tired, infinitely tired, just as he was. The old man had to have felt the same connection, because he looked at him with certain odd comfortability. “I guess is true” The old man said.

“What?” Aiden replied, with weak voice.

“That you are a _me_”. Aiden felt confused at first, but his doubts soon disappeared. “I fear we will not go to anywhere soon, God knows when the timeline will stabilize, so what do you think about introduce us?” the old man requested.

“I think is good for me” Aiden replied. “But she’s gonna be okay?” he asked, seeing the sleeping girl.

“Yes, let her rest, she suffered a severe concussion before I find her, she needs to rest” The old man replied.

For the next three hours, the two mans talked about who they were. The Doctor talked about his alien origins and the day he ran away with her granddaughter in a rubbish time machine. He told stories about his adventures, and the people who he loved and shared said adventures. He talked him briefly about the daleks, the time lords, Gallifrey and several other alien and earthly races he met in his centuries of adventures. Then he talked him about the infamous Time War and everything he lost, of the horrors which dwelt in, of the Nightmare Child and the Horde of Travesties, of the slow corruption of his own people, and his pursuit of the Could’ve Been King. And above all, of all the tired he began to fell about the endless conflict, and why he renounced to be called The Doctor.

Next, Aiden talked him about his boring normal life, of his supposed successes in everything he proposed to do, and his supposed friends. He talked of his family and his beloved parents, and then talked about Mabel, her previous best friend, and their brief but happy romance, and its abrupt end certain unconfortable night. And then talked, very ashamed, of what he was doing there when The Doctor found him, and how regretted and tired he felt.

“I don’t think we can be parallel versions between us” Aiden said, smiling.

“Well, the TARDIS does not agree, and believe me; she does not get wrong ever. Why do you doubt it?” The Doctor asked.

“Look all you did, all the wonderful things you did, and everything you gave away to save your universe… and then look at me. Look me, I’m just a high schooler with too muscles and pretty much things to regret of. I am not a Doctor” Aiden said, disappointed.

“Neither me, boy” The Doctor replied, smiling at him. Then he looked at the locked doors, and proceeded. “I’ve done… things I’ll regret forever. I’ve fought in hellish places that could turn you insane with its mere sight. Every day I stand on the battlefield I wonder when this will end, and why I still fighting. But I know I fight for the sake of peace. I fight to people like you can make the right choices, and drive their lives and their worlds to better futures than the ones I’ve been forced to watch. No matter what you do. It matters why you do it. Every one of us makes mistakes, but we can drive them to better fates”.

“I don’t know where this will drive me” Aiden said, looking at the cables in the ceiling.

“Well, let’s go to find out” The Doctor replied, lifting from the staircase. Aiden went in his direction, to the console’s screen. A flux diagrams, confusing at first sight, made itself to appear, as The Doctor explained Aiden what he found about what was happening. “This is your timeline, how your universe was composed originally when I landed. I was precipitated there when I rescued the girl, for what I guess she also has a parallel self in this reality. But something misbalanced it; it’s like if your timeline was shape shifting into different histories, specifically in a zone of 3000 years of wide, and it’s epicenter it’s pretty very near this date in time.

“What do you think is causing it?” Aiden asked.

“The Could’ve Been King” The Doctor replied.

“The guy you were searching for?”

“The same one. He has the power of bring into physical existence, beings whose timelines were erased by the chaos of the war, his Meanwhiles and Neverweres. But the thing is he doing here requires much more power and processing than he could ever have. He’s bringing back entire time zones, entire temporal lines of millions of living beings; he has turned this time zone into a huge, collective Meanwhile for the entire universe–”

“So something is helping him” Aiden interrupted. The Doctor smiled at him.

“And that’s why he ran out the universe to another one, he was bein–“

“Called!” Aiden interrupted again, infected by The Doctor’s amusement. Then lowered, getting more concerned “Wait, then who called him here?”.

“That’s what we have to investigate. But we have the certainness that if he disassembled your timeline he will have to return it again. He should need a circuit of shifting timelines to keep such amount of energy stabilized” The Doctor said, puzzled. A certain concern grew on Aiden. If there was an amount of alternated timelines, that meant, that his was possibly not the original. His whole life, as he had lived it, suddenly lost significance. Suddenly they heard a weak moan, coming from the previously knocked out girl…

\- 

Mason’s head was hurting very much less than before, but she still feeling disoriented. She let out a sound she hoped doesn’t sound too embarrassing, when she did a brief account of the recent events.

_Oh right, I was being ambushed by Eyebats in the middle of Nightmare Realm ‘cause I fell over a crack and… Wait, why everything hurts so hard? Where I am?_

She held over her elbows, looking around her. She was in some kind of rounded hall with a lot of cables in the roof and a sort of control panel where two mans; a young one and an old one were discussing something. Funny enough both had the same hairstyle, one of which she recognized… Then the young one walked towards her with a worried face, and she couldn’t hold to pronounce his name with discomfort.

“Aiden Zimmerman?” Mason said aloud, with her eyes half closed. The young man made a confused face, the confused face that definitively belonged to an Aiden Zimmerman.

“Do you know me?” Aiden asked in disbelief.

“It’s me, Mas… Dipper, you know me as Dipper, I forgot.” Mason responded. His confused face, annoying in her eyes, intensified. The Doctor looked at them from the console, with contained rascality.

“No way, you can’t be Dipper…” Aiden tried to say, when Mason uncovered her birthmark; definitively was Dipper. Aiden felt even more in a syfy movie than he could think possible, and scratched his nape, unsure.

“Ok… So you’re a Girl-Dipper” He intended to say. “This night could not put stranger”. The Doctor sputtered an aloud burst of laugh, and both looked at him.

“In my experience boy, it uses to get better” The Doctor replied. “Don’t feel too confused boy, she is not from this universe as you can remember”.

“Hold a sec sir, what do you mean with ‘I’m not from this universe’?” Mason inquired.

“It’s a long story. Supposing we will have to wait a little further I guess I will go for some drinks, I’ll let you two to talk”. The Doctor said. Then he walked to an apparent region of the wall and opened a hidden door, getting in.

“Wow, this place is even bigger for inside” Aiden said, smiling briefly.

“I seriously die for listen the long story Aiden, now” Mason demanded.

“Excuse me?” Aiden said, feeling himself a little incensed.

“Yes. You’re here for some reason and I don’t like it” Mason said, putting on feet.

“Oooooo right. This, is not happening. This is definitively not happening. Tell me please this is not happening” Aiden replied, more infuriated.

“What?” Mason said annoyed.

“I- I just came here. Right here, in this tad strange situation, a whole new kind of thing on my life and the first thing you do is act like an asshole as usual. I’m not the Aiden you could know, and surely neither him deserves be treated like the plague” Aiden responded, formally angry.

“Oh here comes again, de dignified Aiden who believes himself the most… Awesome thing in the darn world!” Mason said, crossing her arms in disbelief. Aiden blushed in anger, feeling certain hidden conflict pouring over the place.

“Oh here comes again the Dipper who’s angry and tired all the damn time with no explanation. What’s wrong with you? Why can’t be the awesome person Mabel says you are?” Aiden said louder, raising his arm. Something in his words faded away the angry face of Mason, as he stood talking. “What’s next? Do you have too a sort of tabooish crush on your own sister?” she shouted in frustration. That last one got Mason fully mute. Her eyebrows lowered and firmed an absolute expression of sadness, and she turned back from him. Aiden suddenly fell on the unspoken truth, and felt himself again the most stupid man in Creation.

“Dip?” He said to her, lowering the tone in his voice.

“Shut up, just shut up” Mason replied, sitting on the same place where he was a few minutes ago.

“Listen – I had not… right to judge you in that way – I mean, we don’t really know each other so…”

“It’s not that. Anyway is my fault”. Mason said, unfolding her arms over her knees. Aiden mirrored the whole situation in which he was before, and sat aside her.

“I’m pretty sure you’ll hate what I’ll about to do but what if we just forget the whole unsaid rush against the other self with we have it and let the comprehensive Aiden make his magic?”. Mason smiled at the TARDIS’s doors, and slicked her lip; in fact that was not a bad idea.

“Dang, why have you to be such a good person the whole time?” Mason asked.

“The Aiden you know is as good as me?” Aiden asked, his eyes brightening.

“Yes, apparently every version of you is a full good Samaritan, if you want to know”. Mason said, still not looking at him; instead she looked at her blue boots, a bygone present from the Aiden she knew.

“If it is serves of consolation, apparently every version of Mabel drops me off for her beloved sibling” Aiden said, smiling at the doors as well.

“Oh shut up! It was just a friendly date you had –“ she begun to say smiley, but she stopped when she saw his sad glance. “Or… wasn’t just a friendly date in your home dimension?” Mason continued. He looked at her, frowned in undeniable sadness and deception.

“No, it wasn’t. We are… we were pretty good friends, she was more real than any other or my supposed friends” He said, looking at his dirty shoes, kicking an invisible rock out of the way. “Even this darn shirt is a gift she gave me. And then… I dunno, we felt in love or something and we got together. And she was so… kind. And suddenly she dropped me in middle of the prom and I felt guilty for that until she confessed she left me for someone else and then Leigh said me today that that guy was Dipper and I… I kinda got mad. And I could give everything to change the way I reacted – Don’t think bad, they´re pretty fine, I did nothing at the end – I… I think I betrayed all that I am”. He said, sighing aloud. Mason looked at him, and against everything she could had believed she could ever do, she smiled sincerely at an Aiden.

“You know, sometimes It’s better if you betray who you are. I was… well, surely you know how I was. I was tired all the damn time and angry and in denial. And in the stupor of my dipperness I acted like an actual dork and I… got hurt my own mother and Mabel’s friends, including you. So when de bomb was dropped we had no place where to go, and in the run I lost a much loved friend and I was not there when he passed away. And then I realized my mistake. So I renounced to be Dipper anymore.” She said, holding the weight of her memories. “I got tired of be just a wrathful ghost of myself. So I proposed myself to be all the kind I wasn’t before, all the kind I should be; for Mabel, for everyone who was still standing with me. So I am Mason now!” She exclaimed, happier. Aiden chuckled a little, trying to not sound too chill about her entire sad story.

“It’s funny” Aiden said.

“What?”

“Just like The Doctor renounced his name after he decided to fight in the Time War” Aiden said. A sudden memory hit her heavy, in the form of the words of Axolotl.

_You must search the old brave warrior who as you has lost his faith…_

“Crudmuffins!” Mason exclaimed aloud.

“What?” Aiden asked, recognizing the pun as one of Mabel’s preferred ones.

“Where’s he?” Mason said.

“Who?”

“The old man, the one who looks like an old you!” Mason responded, lifting.

“He went for drinks he said…”

“Well young people I hope do you like the apple juice. Sorry for the dust in the cans, I have plenty of time I no visit the Althosian System.” The Doctor interrupted, with a little box full of juice cans. He looked at their intense expressions, and quickly concluded he lost of something.

“Oh right, the resting time is over, let’s go to the work” Mason replied, feeling closer to know what was going on. Then, the ground trembled, making her hold on the near pillar, and making the Doctor to drop the box. The cans twirled over the floor, making high pitched sounds, when the glances of Aiden and The Doctor met.

“The timeline goes back” The Doctor said.


	17. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No weapons, no allies, no hope. Cassie is alone in the oddest place in Earth.... but she won't give up so easy.

She fell hard over the ground, prey of the unusual sensorial stresses of jump from a timeline to another. She put her hands over the floor, filled of dirt, little pine needles and dried leaf pieces. The stormy skies cleared almost immediately, and she guessed immediately, judging for the different positions of the trees around her, that she failed again. An intense feeling of defeat filled her chest, followed by a creeping, untamable fear. Now she was alone, in the middle of the most dangerous forest on Earth, and no one in that brand new world had a single hint of her sole existence. Certainly, new perilous and weird features were added to the forests of Gravity Falls in this new timeline, things she couldn’t even begin to imagine, and certainly the not so perilous were not going to be friendly, so keep running to the Sprite Glades was a time loss, if said glades were still there.

Suddenly, in the middle of her new mind rail, she felt a puncture in her chest. She had forgotten her own name. 

She thought it could be just for a moment, an effect of her stressed mind just as when his father suffered them, but the seconds passed away as she rose from the ground, and her name had still not coming to her. Then she came aware, that she had not escaped from the timeline unharmed. The Shifts were eroding her, slowly but permanently, and if she had not found her soon, she could be damned to the Oblivion. If she dies there, she could be gone forever.

_Come on, come on! You can do this, you can do this!!!_

She put her hands over her dirty knees, and began to breath heavily, trying to regain her straightness, as she cleared her ideas and held the hiperventilation. Her heart raced as every second she stiill not knowing who was her name passed away, so she tried to seek help in her logic.

_I am alone, in the middle of forest, surrounded by all sort of weird monsters and beasts, and no one will help me because no one remembers me…_

Her refueling logic quickly turned against her, and an unmeasurable panic menaced with burst out of her head like a overinflated balloon. She looked around her, trying to find some sort of familiar feature which could guide her in this new, dangerous situation. But the trees had moved out of place, and they were too high to give her a sight of what was beyond the deep forest. Suddenly, in her movenments, she lost the direction to which she was running, and her fear engulfed at all. She had to get out the forest, no matter where she could be now. She picked up a direction, and began to run.

Across the depths of the deep forest, her urging steps could be heard. A few hawktopus flew keeping the sound, and soon three of them were hunting her, waggling their tentacles and waving furiously their black, oily wings. She waved her hands desperately at the mere hearing of their distorted caws, getting them to fly away from her, as she kept running blindly, still hearing them caw. 

Suddenly, she hit something she was not seeing, and her arms fell lifeless over what looked like a huge rock covered with moss. Her glasses flew out of her face, so everything became blurry again. Her belly pained a little for the hit, and her knees cramped for a moment, but she was still fine.

She opened her eyes, catching the glimpse of a humid glade covered by little buds instead grass, and more of that rock-like monticules scattered around, at a prudent distance ones from others. She palped the one in which she was over, and felt little mushrooms growing over mossy patches, and she wished with all her heart that they’re not be poisonous. Her right hand advanced to the end of the rock, and she paralyzed at the contact with certain, undeniably humanoid features. She felt like she was covering an enormous eye closed, feeling clearly the line between their eyelids, and certain chitinous, pointy structures that made of eyebrows. She raised from the not so rocky monticle, and began to walk slowly to the other side, trying to not put much attention, to the spasms the not-so-rock was doing; aknowledging in her mind that they were breaths. Then she felt her calf be wimped by a little feathery tail, and guessed immediately, that was the tail of the beast. She walked over it, and then dragged her feet over the ground, trying to sense her lost glasses. The breaths of the unseen monster began to make more heavy, as she tried her best to not frenzy, when her toes under her sock sensed some glassy in their points.

_Gotcha!_

She quickly bent to her left, picking her glasses and putting them again. Luckily, the soft buds had softened their fall, and aside a few watery drops over them, they were perfect. Then she saw what she was over all this time, and her relief was carried away for the winds. The moss-covered round beast was beginning to move.

Its face was brutally humanoid, with stocky, ogresque features, and protruding out of its lips, there were who long marbled tusks, one of which was broken at half. Ripping out from the sides of its nose, it had other two tusks, more curved, but still recognizable as teeth. At the sides of its body, two fat, short legs were resting over the ground, ended in two rounded fingers covered by wide scales.

She turned around herself, and saw how the rest of the monticules inmediatley reacted, one by one moving as well, and with no warning she saw pairs of yellow eyes opening wide. She looked back at the beast she had awoken, and its mouth opened slowly. Then the beast began to make a deep, atonishing sound, making her to press her hands agaisnt her ears, flurried. One by one, the rest of the beasts began to shout ceaselessly like giant trumpets, and she, almost for instinct, screamed as well. The beasts ceased their pledge, and began to hold over their relatively tiny arms and raising from the ground like statues coming to life. Cassie looked at them for a moment with a feeling that neither she could describe, until her mind raced again, and she picked at other direction. She whispered aloud, giving her back to the creatures, and kept moving fast, running with a some sort of aleviance, over the soft buds that covered the ground.

The glade ended sooner than she could have expected, and suddenly she saw herself surrounded again by tall conifers,announced by the painful sensation that its fallen needles made to her feet. She was sure her feet were bleeding inside her socks, but she had to continue, if night caught them before she could be able to get out from the forest, her feet could be the least of her problems. So she kept running, trying to ignore the pain in her feet, making quick steps, when she heard distant sounds of grunting and blue grass music. She stopped her run, to hear if she was not running straight there, when she saw a darkened shade behind a tree. The slender, raggedy hill man with half bitten straw hat smiled at her, showing two lines of crooked, sharp teeth under a pair of glowing eyes. Another of them walked near, and they clapped continuously over their knees for a brief time. She didn’t remembered much of the Kill Billy language, but for the little she could recall that Grunkle Ford taught her, they said, in the middle of the gibberish, the word ‘HUNT’.

She heard three more distinctive grunts, and she knew she was cornered. Her hope, still alive despite her state, dissapeared at the sight of the facts.The kill billies had a speed vastly faster than a human, and not knowing where exactly run, easily she could put herself in their claws before to get aware.

_No. This cannot end like this. No!_

Her lip trembled, knowing perfectly that surely the kill billies couldn’t remember her, as anyone else could, and knew they never could forgive an intrusion to their territories; in matter of seconds, she could be soon ripped apart over the moisty ground.

_I’m sorry Mom. I’m sorry Dad. I was not the enoughly strong. I was not the enougly smart…_

Hestiantly, she closed her eyes, hoping her certain demise. In certain sense, she had expected it to come. Survive to be almost be aborted before even being given to birth of not for her parents’ strong will, the menace of be spared apart from her family for so much time, being almost eaten by a dinosaur, a mole person, and be erased from History at least twice, had to meant something. The world wasn’t disposed to have her, and she, unable to do anything else to keep herself alive, accepted her fate. Her eyes remained closed, waiting for her unescapable end to come in any second.

_I’m ready…_

And then, the impossible. A huge, familiar roar echoed over the whole Kill Billy territory, and the fanged hill men ran away, scared for its origin. She opened her eyes immediately, catching the moment of their escape, and certain thing crept over her mind, as she, feeling the unescapable impulse, resumed her run over wherever she thought correct.

The soft afternoon breeze rasped her cheeks and freshened her sweaty forehead, as a wide smile made space on her face. 

Yes, she had barely escaped all sort of twisted fates, but she had done it. After all that time, she had still there, there was always a chance. So she began to think why. Were the efforts of their parents, her own strong will, her braveness, her intelligence, the things she knew and learned to do, the weapons she had to survive. And also, a little bit of luck. The enough to have a grunkle who knew how to make jewelry to make her pass safe across all these strange metaphysical phases, the enough to have parents who loved each other and loved her so much despite their strange circumstances and be willing to do whatever they should to care one of the other,he enough to have been taught to survive things that surely no one else could. She escaped twisted fates for so little, but suddenly she became aware why. She was meant to be, she was meant to live.

_No. I will keep running, I won’t give up! I am Cassie Pines.. I’m Cassie Pines! The Survivor! And I won’t gonna give up!!_

Her smile widened at the remember of who she was, and what was her quest. With her enthusiasm at her maximum, she looked at the oranged skyes above her.

“Weeell, cruel dangy world! If you want my life… Come and geeeeet it!” She screamed in the middle of heavy breaths. Before she could give account, she was out of the woods. She stopped, suddenly getting aware of the change of scenario. She was now in a glade of tall, dried grass, a place supposed to no single beast in forest, except the biggest and meanest, to never dare to cross. She remembered where she was, and was both a good and a bad new for itself. Her smile was gone, at least for a moment. For now, she had to focus in keep surviving. She saw at the skies, frightened at the sight of the sun almost hidden by the horizon, knowing it was time for the mole people to hunt. But she knew where she was, and so remembered where the shack was, and knew where to run. She was about to look foward, when she saw the unconfused shape of a mole man crawling between the grass.

_Oh snap, here we go again._

She heard the mumbles of more mole persons than she could see, so she bent, her legs still tensed, and proceeded to touch the ground, in search of something she could use as weapon. Mere seconds after, she found a rock, and lifted it. She put her face back to the glade, but an enormous body appeared in front of her. Furry, humid, and dark, she saw the hideous sight of a mole woman, so nasty and smeling as she remembered their folk, at scarce inches from her. She looked at her many yellow eyes, brave and dauntless.

“How adorable ya littla girl! What you will do namby-pamby? Hit me?” The mole woman said to her with a tauntful tone. Cassie frowned at her, pressing furiously her fingers againstt the rock. She wasn’t go to give up, she was going to fight, until the end. But had not time to make a response, when the sight of green skinned jaws lifted the mole woman just in front of her and threw her far. She heard two heavy steps behind her, and the beast roared highly above her head, making her to hide her ears behind her palms again, this time stunned and confussed. The beast jumped her, at the moment that the rest of the mole persons ran in its direction.

Cassie looked, stunned by the surprise, how the beast fought bravely, catching the mole persons who dared to crawl over its sides between its jaws and crush them wildly. Over the top of the beast, was what looked like a centaur-like giant spider, spitting acid and throwing web at the attackers. How odd team was it, but she was relieved to get their aid anyway.

“Go back folk! Go back!” Kurvt, a mole man, said aloud, as the remaining mole persons ran back to the hole from which they came out. The tyrannosaur gave a last triumphant roar, and the centaur spider went down to the ground. Even at the distance in which Cassie was, she glimpsed, something troubled, how the centaur spider folded itself with what looked like super stretchable human skin, and suddenly she looked like an ordinary human, a slightly hippie human. The now bronzed skinned teenaged girl in blue shirt walked towards Cassie, and then she freaked out a little.

“Are you Cassie?” The girl said, concerned.

_O holly canolli, ‘this will be hard to explanin’ suddenly has a new significance._

“Yees, that’s me” Cassie responded, a little confused.


	18. Robbed Lives

Dipper turned off the van, to just after pass his hands over his face, for what was the hardest day to him in a very long time.

Everything began early in school, when the classroom was welcomed with a worrying new. Aiden had disappeared yesterday at night. More detailed yet, they were said that his car was found in Oakland, in the parking lot of the same cinema in which he and Mabel had went for a movie that night. He didn’t know when his and Mabel’s glances found, but they made their best mental efforts to not make so obvious their pale, utterly concerned faces. Between that and the next class, they exchanged worried theories about if he could have seen something and the usual paranoid things Dipper used to say, when he became obvious that Mabel felt more guilty than worried for his disappearance. His road of paranoia was gotten out from roots, and, with no more choice due the exposure reasons, everything he could have to do was to hug her tightly. Then she was one of the people interrogated about Aiden wereabouts, nothing useless, but also nothing dangerous. The rest of the day she was more calmed… Until the lunch time. Mabel suddenly freaked out about some lot of things she began to say, in middle of the lunch room, in front of a lot of people. Dipper had not time to catch all of that, but he remembered quite strong the matter about of ‘where the scars of his arms had gone’ in the middle of her bursting before she began to cry. Not an hour after, Dad was getting her back to home, and he passed the rest of the day alone, ambushed by the not so comfortable questions of his classmates, mostly of them, annoyingly gossip in their nature. At the end of the day, when he thought everything had ended, he was literally cornered by Leigh demanding to know what supposedly they did with Aiden. At first Dipper made his best effort to feign to not knowing anything about her motivations to believe they did something, until she mentioned what she saw the previous day in the morning, and his face faded out of color. But very soon Leigh ran out of doubts when Dipper told her that genuinely neither he nor Mabel ever knew he was there, despite her insistence. For a moment she was sure of her words as ever, but then he made her to know very strongly, that Mabel was more worried about his wellbeing than was for the fact of be discovered.

“If you believe we’re not feeling as hell for this so you’re very wrong. We’ll help you as much as we can to help to find him, but don’t dare to mess with us Leigh. He’s really your friend? So show it” was the last thing Dipper said to her before to crush the pavement with his angry steps back to his van. She, for the first time in her whole life, got out of words.

So, more sure that Leigh had no reasons to say something against them, he drove back home, occupying the whole way back in think if it could be a good idea to tell Mabel that Leigh discovered them, but for unsettling reasons, he just couldn’t give the subject the importance it should give it. Her words in the lunch time were so familiar to him, and he could just not to figure why. And not only the things had she said that time; every bursting had mentions that he couldn’t ignore, things he could swear he could remember but at the same time, were completely unknown to him. The feeling of familiarity he was feeling about things that surely never happened to them was troubling him in ways he couldn’t begin to unpuzzle.

He entered in the house, finding no one inside. An odd thing, because he could swear Dad should be there to attend everything Mabel could need; in familiar matters, Dad was always the motivating one to he, and the caring one to Mabel, so, for the sake of the life-long ruse that he and Mabel planned to orchestrate, he was practicing in his mind the attitude he should have for the obvious scenario of see both of them when he enters. A waste of pressed miliseconds, because now the house was apparently empty.

A little more of attention, and he heard the shower in the bathroom coming from the upper room. He made a single step in that direction, but then he smelled certain burnt smell coming from the kitchen. He entered, finding the Mom’s favorite bowl in the sink, full of a crusty, blackened mass of what looked like melted candies of different types, soaked in water. For the smell coming from the microwave, and the candy bags scattered over the kitchen desk, he guessed it was something Mabel did. Not losing more time, he ran over the stairs, and saw the bathroom door half opened. In the middle way, there was a unfinished white sweater, still attached to its yarn ball, and a little more further there was a pink yarned bandana with a yellow flower attached with glue. He walked slowly, prepared for everything he could find, certainly feeling the old vibes of Gravity Falls’ weirdness pouring in the house in the corners of his anxious mind. Then he opened the door, and her eyebrows dropped in a massive wave of worry.

Mabel was sit in the floor of the bath, naked and soaked continuously for the water pouring out of the shower, with her arms over her bended knees, resting her chin over her arms, looking at the nothingness in silent despair. She did not even turn to see him; probably knowing was he since he came in the house. The curtains were half opened, so he could see her at full, a sight he usually enjoyed, but now was freaking him out. The scissors were dropped half the way to the bathroom, and for a moment Dipper feared the worst.

“Mabel, where’s Dad?” Dipper asked, the more calmed he could due the circumstances.

“He went out for pizza to dinner. Mom’s not gonna like it, but he insisted I could choose the dinner today” Mabel said, with no discernible tone in her voice, except for a contained despair. Dipper frowned, trying to contain his urges to go right to the point.

“Uhm- What are you… doing here, there must cold in there” Dipper said, trying to sound like he was joking, but failing honorably.

“I wanted to be sure. I was not feeling much… real today” Mabel asked, frowning as well, but regaining some of her mabelish tone.

“Sure… Sure of what?” Dipper asked, holding tighter the door frame.

“That now was real. That this is real” Mabel replied, a little taint of sadness rasping through her voice.

“Mabel… What’s happening?” Dipper burst the slowest he could, fearful of what she could answer. A weak but powerful idea was beginning to settle inside his mind, something the evidences could not argue against.

“I feel robbed Dip. I feel like we’ve been stolen from a thousand lives and every when I wake up I am on a dangly different life. And mostly are not much pithy details like a dumb haircut or a sweater what I’ve never made. But sometimes is like the whole stuff is different. I remember to have been raised by a psycho mole woman, and I remember myself kissing the scars in your arms. I remember to have become a trans guy and I´m pretty sure we married in kindergarten for a leprechaun-hunt like thing.” Mabel began to say, his voice trembling. “And I can remember we had a daughter, I remember how she was feeling inside my womb…” Mabel’s voice trembled even more, as the familiarity with every one of the hints hit his chest like a dart going through him. But he just could not figure why it was too familiar, and he began to fell more and more troubled for that; his mind dropped the countless paper notes of all the rare things Mabel had said all those weeks over an imaginary floor, and his inner self fell in knees.

Mabel smiled, as if she could feel his confusion, but her spontaneous smile disappeared as fast as it came to be. “See? You feel it too!” Mabel exclaimed, gulping aloud. He was not sure if she was actually crying or just the continuous water drops playing with his mind, but his heart felt equally horrible for both possibilities. He took off his shoes with his feet, and not caring at all that he was going to end all soaked or how close Dad was from coming back, he entered in the shower and seated over his knees, holding her bare shoulders as she looked at him. “What’s happening Dipper? I feel so lost. I can´t keep hiding this I feel anymore” Mabel said, undeniably holding her sobs.

“I-I- I don’t know. I can’t really think in any option right now. But I promise I will find out what’s happening, I promise” He said, sure in his words. Theirs lips met as their hands tangled together, as they felt the incoming nostalgia of never lived things ripping apart across their jointed lips. Then they got their faces apart, and Mabel looked more smiley than before. Her smile infected him, as he chuckled briefly, trying to not sound like he was freezing inside his wet clothes.

“What?” Dipper asked, trembling his voice due the cold.

“That I think we just broke the universe” Mabel responded, laughing hard, she too was feeling a quite chill…

_“You almost broke the universe!” The Could’ve Been King said to her, angrier than ever. She could feel his infuriated glance coming from his nonexistent face, as his cape waved with his movements._

_“AH, come on, that timeline was not going anywhere at all. If we want results, we must stop of be chill with the failures” The young crone responded, walking around the grey hall._

_“You have not the faintest idea of with what we are dealing! To make a successful shifting we must oscillate the artron stream or the whole Spiral Politic falls apart, and we need an EXACT amount of timelines to achieve it! And you just destroyed two of them!” The Could’ve Been King answered, his fumes growing._

_“Then just create two more then, don’t make such scandal” The young crone replied, uncaring._

_“You do really think it’s so easy?! I told you how it works, and I told you the risks. DO you seriously have an idea of in which universe we are? We are not just hiding from the Temporal Powers of this reality. This is the universe where Bill Cipher died. If we undo his death, we will put in risk the entire Creation, and you can forget of come back home!” The Could’ve Been King shout at her, pointing in her direction with his black hand._

_“I dunno, perhaps I got different intentions this time” The young crone replied, smiling weakly._

_“Do not mess with the machinery ever again. I warn you” he said to her, lowering his and._

_“And I warn you, that you and your beloved brothers decided to give me power, so don’t think I had not word in here.” The young crone answered, more sternly._

_The Could’ve Been King got out the room thru the round entrance, as she looked at him with contempt._

_“You’ll see failed king, youu’lll see” The young crone said, a dense fume pouring from her…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on several Pinecest-themed AU's


	19. Trustful Critters

\- _Gravity Falls, Oregon. August 25, 2012_

_She opened her eyes, forcing herself to beat her tiredness. During her last hours after her head was set free from the sap, she was enforced to fight an army or unsettling, giant beasts of blaspheme shapes and names. Terrified, out of control, drifted across barren plains by unknowable forces, she fought, because she had to do it, and she not hoped more to happen to her. But the last one, the yellow beast whose only eye she ripped apart in despair, had just defeated the immense machinery to which she was attached. Her mind pained in fear, as she saw the horrendous beast coming near, ready to devour her and the unseen battle fellows she had never known._

_But in that precise moment, a strange wind began to run in direction to the skies. She looked above her the best she could, and saw the infamous cross shaped tear in the space to suck away everything it had led to get in into her world. And then she felt it; the heart of Creation pinning deep in her mind, giving her a hurtful but relieving awareness, allowing her to think deeper, to think clearer._

_Her pupils widened, as the last of the tear closed itself, and a blinding, pure light flashed over everything, taking her sight out of her…_

_She awakened, with a hurtful sensation in her head, but still alive. She smelled the sweet scent of unknown flowers to impregnate the air, and her eyes opened, revealing a dense forest of huge barks, just like the place in which she grew, a so long time ago. _

_ _

_Then she got aware that the heavy layer of sap was not over her anymore, and not thinking it twice, she got on feet. A wave of utter happiness filled her entire body from nose to tail, and she didn’t hold the huge, relieved roar that came out of her. She was alive, and she was free, and she was now going to make her steps sound strong, for all that brand new world…_

\- _Fifteen years later_

_“Admit it! We got lost” Stan Jr. said to Cassie, as they wandered around the deeper part of forest._

_“No way, we followed the map precisely, the Crystal Baldwin’s burial place must be here!” Cassie pointed at the map in her hands, sure of her words. Stan Jr. could just not understand how she was so calmed with the fact of be lost in the middle of the forest. Or she was just undeniably brave, or she was undeniably just another freakily stupid city girl. Anyway, they had a lot of way to go back._

_“Cass… I can call you Cass right?” Stan Jr. proceeded, adjusting his green cap._

_“Yes, why so formal now?” Cassie asked, smiling._

_“Ok, fine. There is a zone in the forest we must avoid at all coast ‘cause Dad put bear traps all around to keep the dinosaurs away, if we aren’t careful we could just end – “_

_Stan Jr’s words were suddenly interrupted with the fading scream of Cassie, as she slip on her back over a unevenness that none of them saw before. Cassie opened her eyes, finding herself in a dirty glade. The glade was followed by others more far, and then she recognized some spot in her map, marked by Grunkle Ford several years ago. Then she heard a shouting voice above her, and looked at Stan Jr._

_“Oh my gosh oh my gosh, Cassss! Are you ok?!” Stan Jr. asked, with his unfolded hands around his mouth._

_“All ok! Come down here! I found it!” Cass replied smiley. Stan Jr. sighed in relief, and calculating a few moments how he should slip, jumped into action. He came below soon, as Cassie laughed at his stunned face._

_“You’re a serious treat girl, that was a slipping” Stan Jr. said, surprised. She was undeniably brave._

_“SuperBig Burger for Crunchy Potato, here SuperBig Burger for Crunchy Potato, over” The voice of Soos at the Stan Jr.’s walkie-talkie in his belt interrupted them._

_“Here Crunchy Potato. It’s the last time we let Mom to choose the Codenames, over” Stan Jr. said, hearing the unhidden laughs coming from Cassie._

_“BigCola to Crunchy Potato, I heard you, over” Melodie responded by the walkie-talkie._

_“Yes Mom, I heard you too, over” Stan Jr. replied, slightly annoyed, as Cassie kept her laughs, covering her hands with her mouth._

_“SuperBig Burger to Crunchy Potato, HotWater Dipper and Maberry ask if you had found the whimsical thing, over” Soos replied, pretending to be serious._

_“We’re close the place, over” Stan Jr. replied._

_“10-4, repeat, 10-4, HotWater Dipper and Maberry send kisses to CassioPie, over and out” Soos said._

_“10-4, over and out” Stan Jr. replied. “Well CassioPie, where’s our next hint?” He asked to Cassie. She looked at the map, about to point in the direction, when they heard it. In the opposite direction, not so far, a certainly big beast roared in pain. Cassie didn’t say a word, when she ran into the woods. “Cassie? Cassie wait!” Stan Jr. said, freaked out._

_When Stan Jr. reached her, he found her standing at the huge theropod roaring, with its left side over the floor, and an enormous bear trap biting its right leg. The theropod screamed in pain, and it was evident in the despaired tone in its roaring, that it was suffering. Stan almost screamed, soon being distracted by Cassie’s pity expression._

_“Tyrannosaurus rex, Late Cretaceous. 65.5 M.Y.A. A female” Cassie said, frowning in frustration._

_“Cassie we have to go now, that’s one of the dinosaurs” Stan Jr. said in lowered voice, grabbing Cassie’s left shoulder._

_“How I open the trap?” Cassie said, turning her face to him._

_“Wha – Cass are you crazy?” Stan Jr. replied, more angered than worried._

_“Look. I know where she comes from. She has not seen the sun in 65 million years and then what? She just falls to a slow dead? That’s not fair” Cassie said, looking at the sad expression in the theropod’s eyes. “Besides, we are on her biting range, if she had wanted to eat us before surely I’d been eaten before you had come. I have to try it” Cassie said, looking back at him._

_“Oh holly snap!.. Ok ok ok, I’ll tell you. You must quit the L-shaped huge tube” Stan Jr. said, uneased. “But please, don’t do it!” He insisted._

_“Chill out boy, I’ll be careful”. Cassie walked slowly, nearing the trap. The theropod followed with her eyes, snarling aloud. Cassie stopped, looking her back, and her breath heaved._

_“Quiet girl, I won’t let you hung” Cassie said. The theropod stopped her snarling, seeing how she lifted her hands, and resumed her walk. Once she reached the trap, she looked back at Stan Jr, pointing the L-shaped tube. He nodded, and then she held it with her hands. The brief movement made the theropod to moan in pain, and she stopped, giving a pair of steps back. The beast lowered her breath, and Cassie went back to the trap. She pulled the hardest she could, at the heavy, rusted piece, as the theropod snarled painfully. Every inch she got the piece to move felt like lift up an entire car, but she didn’t stop no matter how her arms began to feel heavy. With no warning, the L-shaped piece flew out the way and Cassie fell over her back, feeling how the cold metal was throwed out of her hands and the trap’s springs fell over the dirty ground. The beast roared and rounded over her back, lying in front of a nearby tree as Cassie raised from ground, not putting her sight out of the beast. Cassie and Stan Jr. ran together behind a pine tree, and saw the beast’s next move. Slowly, the theropod raised her enormous green body, grunting a little when she put her weight over the ground. She stood still for a moment, proving if her feet could still hold her, and made a few stomping to prove it. She grunted a little, and then, looked at Cassie, who was showing her face from behind a tree. Then, she grunted a last time, and went away walking, whipping at the nearby trees with her tail._

_“Wow. Just… Wow!” Stan Jr. said, unable to believe what just happened. But Cassie just looked at the enormous animal as she walked away, with a whole life to hunt down._

\- A really really ‘Not-seriously-what-the-holy-holy-heckity’ish amount of Shifts later…

“Woah WOOAH there, hold on. How do you know my name?” Cassie asked, confused.

“There’s not time to explain – Wow, hear me said that” The bronzed teenager said, as if she was having an argument with herself.

“Ooook?” Cassie answered, more confused. The sunset was almost over, and she was feeling more and more unsettled for the silence in the whole grassy glade.

“Sorry. We have to go. Now,” The girl inquired, feeling herself a little more scared, being obvious the silence around them. Cassie looked behind her, seeing how the tyrannosaur behind them was eating one of the corpses, ripping apart legs and guts in a rhythmical but disgusting movement.

_Ok, should I worry for being eaten right now? There’s a plenty of mole person’s corpses around the place… Wait that’s a..?_

Cassie saw a metallic necklace around the girl’s neck, and all her doubts fell out of place. Sternly, she uncovered her necklace’s die shard, and both glowed simultaneously. 

_Right, that’s new._

“Ok, guide me” Cassie said, resigned. The girl smiled, and putting two fingers on her mouth, whistled aloud. The tyrannosaur grabbed another corpse between her jaws, and walked in the girl’s direction until it was aside her.

“Take my hand, I’ll help you to get up” The girl said, extending her a hand.

“Wait… I not even know your name” Cassie said, a little concerned.

“Darlene” The girl said, smiling at her.

Cassie took her hand, and before she could know, she was over the scaly back of the dinosaur, grabbing the girl from her neck…

-

The night was on its midpoint, and the moon shinned proud over the skies of the forest, painting the needles of the nearby pine trees with tiny drops of humid white. In the depths of the forest, along the flares of a big campfire, Cassie and Darlene dined in complete silence. Darlene had the touch of get enough berries and a piece of deer to satisfy Cassie’s appetite, as she got the rest of the deer to herself. The tyrannosaur was sleeping peacefully beside the campfire having feasted with the remains of the mole persons, herself alone covering half of the available space, heated by the glowing flares. Cassie remained sit over a big trunk, looking at her void dish with nostalgia.A part of her was enjoyng the fact of have shoes again (despite of be the first person in home to get rid of them at the least chance; for now, she and the shoes made amends), but the other couldn’t stop of think about her parents. Where thery could be now? And how they could be now? They could be able to remember her? The questions plagued her like a swarm of bees in her head. Darlene ceased her carnivorous impetus to look at her, distinguishing her sad glance.

“I could bet that the fire could be more interesting to you than that old dish” Darlene said, looking at her sympathetically, as she gulped a huge piece of flesh across her throath. “Not every day I had to make a campfire, we the arachnimorphs sleep more comfy in the cold”.

“It’s a piece of pottery from the original inhabitants of these lands; in other time Grunkle Ford could be teasing me for even looking at them, imagine him to see me eating over one” Cassie said, noting how the merry expression of Darlene faded when she mentioned Grunkle Ford.

“Yeah, he has a great respect for old things” Darlene replied. Cassie noted her growing sadness, and decided to do something at respect.

“Ehm –Thanks, for the shoes. And the dinner! I had not eaten nothing the whole day” She said, forcing a smile.

“You’re welcome. I have a plenty of time eating alone” Darlene said. Cassie felt a knot in her stomach, guessing why.

“How long have you been… you know, jumping?” Cassie asked.

“Like three years. Indeed it’s a funny story; I come from a time thirteen years ago, but when the first change occurred I found a time traveler who was investigating something and I stole his time tape. I used it to try to reach the farthest possible but another change occurred in middle travel and I got stuck here, three years ago. And I’ve been alone since then” Darlene said, looking at the campfire.

“What about her?” Cassie replied, referring to the tyrannosaur.

“I found her at least a month ago; for some reason she remembers me despite the changes, but she doesn’t jump with me”. Cassie guessed certain unconfortable thing she had thought about herself, as the most probable cause of her growing sadness.

“So you… you doesn’t exist in other time, don’t you? Cassie asked. Darlene looked at her with a little comptent, a forced one.

“Yes I do, but when I jumped I was split apart of the rest of my life. When I found myself in another time I… Let’s say I was disappointed. She was like that in all the times I’ve been” She replied, sticking a piece of meat out of the deer corpse and putting it on the flares.

“And can’t you find the future of the time to which you belong?” Cassie asked, fearing for the answer. Darlene looked at her, feeling a knot in her stomach too. She remained silent for a while, before to dare to talk.

“Certain timelines go back. But others… The mine didn’t go back. I’m stuck here like an anomaly, and no matter how hard I try… I have no place in any other” Darlene said, resigned. Then she got aware her meat piece was burning, and threw it fully into the campfire, widening her eyes. Cassie chuckled briefly, before to find words to aim her.

“But you were searching me, you have a purpose” Cassie argued.

“For now. I… The last time I was on your timeline Ford told me to find you” Darlene said, pretending it to be a simple response. But Cassie frowned in confusion.

“Wait, Grunkle Ford knew what all of this could happen?”

“Yes. Well, not exactly. He can remember the alternate timelines for himself, but he can’t jump them. He doesn’t want to” Darlene said, still resigned. It didn’t take her too much to get aware that for Cassie wasn’t anything.

“But if he knows what’s happening, why we don’t go for him? Why he’s not trying to reach us?” Cassie asked, with a higher tone in her voice.

“He – We believe that someone’s being responsible for the changes. And if anyone in the current timeline gets aware, whoever knows it simply erases it” Darlene said more serious. Cassie felt horrified. If that was true, that meant that… “Don’t worry, yours is still on the round. You were gave your necklace at least two cycles ago” Darlene said. Cassie sighed, but then her relief disappeared with the next logic step.

“But… If our timelines are just constructions on a roulette that means that we’re not supposed to exist” Cassie replied, concerned.

“Maybe, maybe not. He thinks the most probable conclusion is that the one who did all of this splinted specific casual nexuses from the original timeline and gave them independent existences…” Darlene began to say, chuckling a little in the middle “Wow, hear me talk like him, I got a nerd as him”

Both laughed at the same time, remembering the peculiar attitudes of Grunkle Ford. But Cassie got serious again; the problem was greatly troubling her.

“Wait, then why us? Why we were given the necklaces and not to someone else? Why no Mom or Dad…?” Cassie replied. Darlene’s expression got serious.

“He believes that the changes are occurring around them. Because there’s a thing that connect them all” Darlene replied, looking at Cassie.”

“What thing?” Cassie asked, putting her dish over the trunk. Darlene’s eyes rolled out, and Cassie quickly concluded for herself.

“Ohhh…. That?” Cassie replied widely. Of all possible things, it was the least probable, and yet, she was there, hearing it.

“Yes, is weird. But if an all-powerful thing tries to stop it, it must be for something, don’t you believe?” Darlene said, smiling again.

“Yes, it must be” Cassie said, still smiling, but sad anyway.

“Besides, my species does not put much effort in such social standards, my uncles are siblings, indeed” Darlene said. “Or were, I don’t know how they are going with all of this”. Cassie muted, her worries getting a new direction.

“But… What if we aren’t the only ones to be erased. What about Stan Jr and Lee?” Cassie inquired, still troubled.

“Those guys? Don’t worry; they’re always there, years more, years later. Hey girl, your parents are not the only ones to share a cosmic love bond” Darlene replied, resting her back over the trunk. Cassie lay down too, making a pillow with her arms. She distinguished the heavier tone in her voice, and didn’t hold her urges to inquire.

“Do you… miss Grunkle Ford?” Cassie asked. It was fortunate for Darlene that Cassie didn´t see her blushing face, for the mention of an old forgotten topic.

“It’s so obvious?” Darlene said, feigning to be incensed.

“Yep, you could be seen from space”.

“Shut up” Darlene said to her merrily. “Ahhh… It’s time to sleep Cassie.”

“Here? At the middle of forest?” Cassie asked, more worried for the sudden disappearance of the last person who received her to pass the night. Darlene lifted, grabbed the huge bucket they used to wash their hands, and turned off the campfire. Cassie raised her head, seeing her trough the darkness. Darlene took a pair of blankets from inside the trunk, and guessed that Darlene really had a lot of time to prepare herself to any scenario.

“Chill out girl, you’ll sleep along two fearsome critters” Darlene said feigning amused, and walked towards Cassie to give her a blanket, when she saw her sad expression. She put on knees, and held her head.” Hey, don’t feel sad; I’ll be here in the morning. I jump just as you jump so if the world changes again I’ll be here in morning” She said gently, but Cassie’s sadness didn’t disappear.

“It’s not that” Cassie said, uncomfortably turning her entire body to look at Darlene. “I miss them. Right now they would be wrapping me to sleep. This is so…” Cassie muted suddenly, trying to be brave. She really missed them, and the constant sensation of be stolen from her life was just not going away. Darlene got silent for a while, and then smiled at her.

“Maybe you need to switch places. I use to sleep over that trunk”. Cassie’s eyes widened, and she lifted at full.

“Oh. Sorry” She said. Darlene put a blanket over the floor and put the other in Cassie’s hands.

“Arhm.. Do you mind if I…?” Darlene begun to say, making an indication with both hands so Cassie understood that she was about to shred her human skin.

“Oh – Of course, go on” Cassie said, scratching her cheek. Not waiting a second, Darlene took her own lips with her hands and stretched them horrendously, folding her entire skin over her waist like she was undressing, freeing her furry torso and multi eyed head. After proceeded with her legs from a unseen point between her legs, freeing her thorax and spidery legs. Cassie tried to not shudder; certainly it was not nice to see.

“Uff!, that’s better. I sleep more comfy in my spider form; it’s that or undress my human form” Darlene said, making a few stretches with her arms and legs. Cassie found herself troubled for the fact if she should feel more uncomfortable to have a naked girl sleeping at her side or have her spidery still naked form sleeping at her side. Anyway, it was not the oddest thing that had happened to her in the last two days. Cassie laid over the blanketed floor, covering herself with the other, as Darlene fell over the trunk, sighing in relaxation. “After that dinner I’ll sleep as a baby. Good night Cassie” Darlene said, closing her eight eyes.

“Good night Darlene” Cassie replied, closing her two eyes. She was still on the road, at least for another day. For now, she had someone in which she could trust.

\- 

_“I begin to believe that she can’t be trusted, brothers” The Could’ve Been King began to say._

_“We’re a little out of options now, don’t believe you?” His bulky brother asked him, in the other side of the room, recharged over the wall, with not much concern in his voice._

_“What makes you believe that, brother?” The slender brother replied, thru the image in the mirror that showed him, being in fact far away, still in the hall of their castle, at universes of distance._

_“Her actions, they’re turning irresponsible, and mischievous” The Could’ve Been King inquired._

_“It says it the man who waged in the Wicked War?” The bulky brother asked, in full discomfort. “What she could gain if she make us fail in our mission? She can’t do what she wants to do without our power at its full”._

_“Not to make us fail, but maybe she has other purposes” The Could’ve Been King said, concerned._

_“Until we can really know what she really wants, I suggest to let the things as they are. I am sure we will know how react if she turns against us” The bulky brother said, more confident._

_“Let me know if there’re problems brothers, our people trust us. Let’s make sure first that we’re trusting our future to the right person” The slender brother said, sterner._

_“Until then…” The bulky brother said, dematerializing in middle air._

_“Until then…” The slender brother said, his image disappearing from the crooked mirror._

_“Until then my brothers” The Could’ve King said. He sighed, fearful of his decision. They had sacrificed so much to be so close of the salvation, and the struggle had begun to weight over him as much as it hadn’t since a long time ago._


	20. The Thousand Lives of Mabel Pines

\- _A thousand shifts ago…_

_The croaky bed of the shack´s room was holding two old bodies cuddled together, as it did 30 years ago, under yellowed blankets. With their bodies spooned, both looked at the walls with a sense of happiness beyond any smile could express. It was a lucky that their grand nephews stayed in Dan´s house for reparations, because the things got quickly noisy after their old problems were resolved. They were together after all, and that was everything that mattered._

_Dipper had his face buried in the Mabel´s greyish hairs, enjoying a scent he had not felt in decades, or more chronologically accurate, millions of years. She chuckled at the sound of his intense breath, passing for her mind the idea of a comic sort of jelaous._

_“Hey Mr. Syrupsmell Man, leave a little to me” The old lady said, holding his hand embracing her breast._

_“After the first millions of years it gets pretty boring Mabes” Dipper answered her. For a moment, her heart pained, getting the fact that Dipper´s voice had become old and raspy, nothing like his voice the last time they met, 30 years ago. And then, other horrible idea: he had to spend entire decades trapped in the Cretaceous Period before to fall in the sap; a hell of time to spend himself alone, with no one to talk, ambushed constantly by dinosaurs, gigantic predatorial pterosaurs, and God knows what else bygone horrors, everything before to spend 65 million years fighting restlessly in the mindscape against the triangular demon to save not only his worlds, if not the entire universe; millions of souls in distant worlds had their lives safe for millions of years thanks to his sacrifice, and no one could ever know it. No one, except Stan and Ford, and of course her, her above everyone else. Her face frowned in guilt, and she stretched her hand on his. Dipper instantly guessed what was happening in her mind, and her comic relief disappeared. “Hey! It´s ok, nothing of this is your fault…” He began to said._

_“Then why I feel like you´ve told me that a zillion times before?” Mabel replied, turning herself around to face him. Her guilt poured out across every faction of her face, across her frowned eyebrows and her wet eyes, and every new wrinkle he had not seen before in her face. Something in her words caught her attention but he had not the stretch to think why; everything he wanted to do right now was to make her feel good, as he had not in the 30 years she had to spend without him. With no more choice, he pressed his old lips against hers, holding her hands with hers. The shouted eyes of both sprouted wet strings of regret and sorry, and the eternal seconds that passed after made Mabel to know everything could go better, no matter what happened before. They faces got apart and Mabel watched instantaneously, the tender face of his brother, looking at her._

_“So I´ll tell you another zillion times”…_

\- _Planet Gallifrey. 637 shifts ago…_

_“SO, keeping with the lesson, the most useful way to get rid of the Cyclocks is to set in the nearby environment a quantum-sound echoing in the atmospheric shield…” Borusa kept saying, throwing a judgmental looking at Dipper. He flushed in shame and buried his face on the book, listening the gossip laughs of his classmates. Ashamed, but not giving them the right to laugh; under the book, his eyebrows fought his ashamed cheeks to express anger via a deep frowning. Maybe he had not yet learned to control que noise of his telepathic conversations with Mabel, but that last one was a real urgency. Far away from the Capitol, inside a lonely barn in the middle of the Drylands, their friend was crying in despair…_

_Aiden was crying, buried under a dense white blanked, prey of an ambushing sadness and terror. He was listening the endless grasping of the tiny sand particles rasping the wooden walls of the barn outside. Aside his feet, Mabel was sit over the blanket, rubbing his back as she was slowly getting out of words to comfort him; in her depths she shared his fears. The fear to the vast unknown universe, and the frightening forces that were dwelling in the wild beyond, the duty that all of them had, and the insecurity of can handle it. But maybe she was having a little more of that; something (She could not describe not interpret it) was scratching the bottom of her mind, something she could not be aware of but at the same time was always present to her, like the shadow of a duty yet to be known… But now was not the moment to think about it, she was there for Aiden, and she was going to take him out of that damn barn once for all… She smiled for her moment of dexterous dipperness, having found an answer._

_“I have fear Aiden” Mabel said, holding in her hands a bunch of her hair. He stopped of cry for a moment, and moved his head lightly in her direction, still giving her his back._

_“I-… I´m sorry. I´d like to be brave but…” Aiden tried to say, cutting with a sniff._

_“No, it´s ok.” She answered, letting her hair go. “Let´s have fear together” She replied more amused. Aiden uncovered his face and sit over the bed, smiling at her._

Four knocks. Mabel had no reason to do it, but she did it anyway. Maybe an uncertain fear of how bad Dipper could react with the sole idea of all the things he should know, or maybe for how bad she was going to feel retelling all of that in her mind. It wasn´t the first time she crawled in pajama to Dipper´s room in middle night (she recalled all the times she had nightmares, and needed advice, and even daily talks, long ago before their new, more romantic lifeway) but it was first time in a long time she didn´t know what to wait. She remembered what happened the last time she did, and for God´s sake she didn´t wanted to leave Dipper so much troubled and heartbroken as then; but this had no more time to wait. In some strange way, she had learned to hold all those memories together aside from her real one (The first weeks of all that inner madness she got pride of that), but at the cost of breaking her heart and mind every time she picked up a new memory from nowhere. Retelling them all of them was going to hurt, a lot. But she had no more force to hold it anymore, not alone. Luckily, she had the help of the only person on Earth which she could trust for such trouble (She could had thought about Grunkle Ford, but the details were going to be hard to hear to anyone else) and she was sure that he could think in some way to deal with it.

She waited a few seconds before to see the door opening, and just as she imagined, the first thing she saw was her brother´s concerned face. She tried to smile, but the worry flowing out of his eyes was too much to handle. None of them said anything for a worryingly long time lapse; both were struggling to hold the intense emotions they were feeling right then. Mabel felt like she was to do this for a millionth time, and Dipper was being eaten alive for the horrific possibilities about what was she going to tell him. But they had to be strong; many other struggles had to wait for them in the future, and they were not willing to let themselves to be defeated for that. A simultaneous breath and Dipper finally moved to let her in. She walked slowly inside the room, catching the view of Dipper´s journal over the bed. She smiled for real this time; most probably he had a supernatural idea to resolve such situation, so he really believed what was going on with her. Feeling the overwhelming need of make the atmosfer lighter, she sat over his bed in a seductive way, looking him with confidence.

“Well Dr. Pines, how we´ll work this session” She said with her usual aim for more romantic situations. For a moment Dipper felt troubled with that, but not much after catched the fact of what Mabel was doing, and feigning his best psychiatrist tone, responded in his most eloquent tone.

“This time we will work with a more invasive sort of therapy” he said, taking a few paper sheets from his desk.

“O-ho, that´s promising Dr. Pines” She replied playfully. Dipper´s smile turned a little bit serious, and he walked towards her, putting on knees. He left the paper sheets aside his journal, and took Mabel´s hands, looking at her every time less playful eyes.

“Mabel, I need you be sincere with me – Don’t take me bad, I know you´re sincere, but with this more than everything. How long had you been holding this?”. Mabel´s smile faded away as soon as he got right to point, and gulped aloud, looking away his eyes.

“A… A few weeks, not much before my first bursting. I know I had to tell you before but… I didn´t know if I was just going full cray-cray, or if this was,… real”. She replied with growing sadness. He let go his right hand to hold her cheek, moving her face to his.

“I you´re going insane, me too. Let´s get cray-cray together then” He replied tenderly. Mabel lifted her other hand and pushed his face away, smiling widely.

“Oh you sort of dork psychiatrist” She replied, recovering for a moment her patient tune. He got his face to look her, getting serious again, so she could know he was determined to help her in any possible way.

“Ok, this is we are gonna do…”

A few minutes after, both were sitting over the floor, with a circle of white candles around them. Under Mabel there was the Shooting star symbol drawn with salt, and under Dipper, there was the Pinetree symbol. Dipper held his journal in hands and began to read something in silence, as Mabel continuously looked around her.

“Hey, how did you got the candles so quick? You didn´t go out the house after you came back from school” Mabel pointed. Dipper´s face reddened as she looked at her, drifting in a complicated set of ideas yet to be explained.

“Ehm..- Yup, I-I had this idea of – you know – put a little bit of atmosphere to our special nights you know” he replied with a blushed smile, scratching his nape. Mabel blushed as well, smiling at him with naughty airs.

“Sorry for the candles broshep, but we have homework. Maybe next time…” She began to say.

“Ok. This is we´re gonna do. I improved the spells Grunkle Ford had to follow Bill across the mindscape to get inside the one of anyone. I´ve not proved it yet but I´m sure it will work without risks… I hope” Dipper said, expecting for a reply of Mabel about how he was going to make an experimental mindscape incursion with her own mentally unstable sisfriend. Instead, she reacted assertively.

“Bring it on bro! I´m ready!” She replied, clapping her hands against her knees.

“Wait,.. are you sure…?”

“Dip, I´m here. I trust you” She replied, more confident. Dipper´s heart warmed a little, before to put himself back into action.

“Ooook, let´s do this” …

_Dipper falls straight into the floor, not sure how he got there. The hit pains as if he really had fallen from a high altitude, but he finds himself oddly unharmed. He tries to remember why he´s there, when suddenly catch the memory of him performing the ritual to get inside Mabel´s minsdscape, finding out that it worked abruptly good. He lifts from the pinkish floor, and looks around him. In front of him he finds what he expected to see, if his experience with Grunkle Stan is a good reference._

_In front of him, a majestic, glittered and marbled edifice he´s not capable to decide if is a castle, a mansion, a house, or an odd mixture of all of them. But he admires it anyway, because in front of him is everything that Mabel had thought, done, and said in her entire life; everything that can be descripted about her, everything that´s her except her very own soul is in front of him, heartbreaking and breathtaking beyond the words. An imaginary tear falls from his eye, as he´s admiring how beautiful this mad construction is, unable to believe that something inside it is wrong and making Mabel to suffer. But he´s determined to find out what is it, no matter the time that could take to do it…. Until he caches the brief, but intense spark of light emanating from just behind him._

_He turns around, and sees a round frame door. Out of it the misty pink horizon extends to infinity, but inside he sees a completely different place. Quickly he begins to theorize about what´s this frame door that appears to lead to a place out of Mabel. A world out of Mabel inside Mabel´s world? The idea sets itself as ridiculous, until he remembers how Mabel described her alternate memories. His imaginary Adan apple moves as he concludes what´s out there, and with no more time to lose, he walks towards the frame door…_

_A step out, and he is fully out there. He looks around, disoriented; something in this new place feels wrong, unexpectedly wrong. The soil beneath his bare feet is deep grayish, and the mist at the distance echoes sounds and shapes of unseen beasts; that´s something definitively shouldn´t be in Mabel´s head. Scattered in great quantity across the whole place, hundreds of stony frame doors let be seen glimpses of alternate memories of Mabel´s life, much like dusty television screens. A little of sound is audible coming out from the frame doors, but is not so strong as the breaths and howling of the unshapable beasts that roam hidden in the mist. Dipper don´t take too much to notice that as he walks, more frame doors appear without the beasts become clearer, so he conclude quickly they’re really just footprints of… something. What´s happening to Mabel gets a much more worrying level of seriousness; he knows for Grunkle Ford, that said shapes are echoes of the wild horrors that dwell beyond the universe; if Mabel has them inside her mind, the trouble must have cosmic proportions._

_His heart menaces to sink, but he regains his determination; one of the frame doors has to lead to some alternate set of memories that can give him a better idea of what´s going on, the only he has to do is to find it. So he begins to look at them as he walks. There´s a lot of them, a freaking lot of frame doors, so much as he can´t begin to count, and every one of them has what´s appear to be the memories of an alternate life. In one, Mabel has short hair, and is sitting with him in a table in what looks like a Taco Bell; judging for his blushed face, he can guess what’s happening. In other, Mabel is a boy, jumping happily on her (his?) room for some sort of revelation, getting him lost in suggestions. In other more, they´re mounting a white horse in middle of a grassy field, chatting about certain place they have to go, and judging for their clothes, they must be form another century. In another frame door he sees himself in a starry night along some black haired guy with a telescope; judging the perspective, Mabel´s walking towards him. In other else she is disguised as a some sort of mermaid, with her hair covered with wet glitter, sleeping heavily in an old couch. Other frame doors have not so happy memories, but they seem pretty well related to them anyway. He gets the point; this is gonna take a lot._

_He spends a good time walking around with no direction, looking for some clue, as he watches slice after slice of every alternate life that Mabel had, some of them he recognizes. But then he watches one that gets him back into some sort of shared memory painfuly fast. His imaginary breathing increases and his eyes get wet, as he walks to the frame door. What he sees lets him out of breath._

_He can watch himself with a tearful smile aside a hospital bed where Mabel holds in her arms a newborn baby with a constellation-shaped birthmark in her little forehead. Cassipoeia; he recognizes quickly the constellation in the forehead of the baby, and he can recall perfectly what´s happening there._

_Mabel had mentioned it before, the name, in a sudden set of outburst, one of them happened just that afternoon, when he found her in the shower. He stays still in front of the frame door for a moment, watching the scene. His mind can´t with the impression; some part of him remembers with heartbreaking clearness what happens there, but he´s sure that is the first time he sees this. Now he understands in its full woefulness, how bad Mabel has been dealing with this, how bad her insides had been hurting, and his heart is now officially broken. But he must keep his mind, he´s there now, so he can help once for all. So he dares, and gives a step inside the frame door._

\- _Gravity Falls, Oregon. 618 Shifts ago…_

_“This can´t be happening… This can´t be happening!” Dipper shouts aloud, trying to hold himself up._

_“It´s happening, I fear. And will happen again” Grunkle Ford replies, concerned._

_“An-And we can´t do nothing to stop it?” Mabel asks, tearful._

_“I don´t know yet. But she tried once, and her entire timeline was erased, so if she says it it must be correct. This timeline will be destroyed, so Cassie will be destroyed as well” Grunkle Ford says, with sad sternness. Dipper and Mabel huge the one each other, trying with no success to hold their sobs. Mabel looks at Grunkle Ford, resolved in what is what they have to do._

_“Are you sure the shard will save her?” Mabel asks, holding Dipper thighter._

_“It saved Darlene, I´m sure it will save her” Grunkle Ford says, walking towards them._

_“What´s the plan?” Dipper asks, looking at Mabel._

_“When the Shift happens, you must tell Cassie to find you, that will keep her in the zone the enough time so that Darlene finds her. She´ll kept her safe; until them you must act as if nothing is happening. I suspect whoever is doing this is not acting alone”…_

_“And… How we´ll know what to do in the next timeline?” Dipper asks…_

_Inside the memory, Grunkle Ford looks at Dipper, right into his unbelieving eyes._

_“You know what to do”…_

Dipper opened his eyes violently along a heavy breath, shakingly and sweaty, as Mabel opens her eyes, quickly catching his horrified expression.

“Dipper what happened?!” She asked, scared.

“We must contact Grunkle Ford, now”

_The Could´ve Been King was standing at the gigantic window of his office, looking at the gargantuan mechanisms of the Never Castle, its sparks enlightening his wooden desk and bookcases with white light. Something was going wrong, and he couldn´t doubt anymore what was._

_He listend the door opening, and knew instantly who was. Inside him, he felt guilt and deception, but he had to keep with the plan, for the sake of what had to be saved, now, and then._

_“Did you called me, Master?” The greyish, brown curly haired young man covered in a grey blanket asked him, supporting his weight with the golden wood rod with his muscled but yet shaking arms._

_“Yes. I called you. There´s something we need to do” The Could´ve Been King said him. “There´ve been a transgression. I need to you descend to find it, and if it is necessary, hunt it. Bring the mice gorgons with you; I feel this will be a hard task”_

_“None task is enoughly hard, Master. I´ll accomplish it as you demand” The young man said, bowing to him._

_“Good luck my apprentice, good luck”_

_The greyish young man vanished in middle air, as the Could´ve Been King kept staring at the mechanisms._

_“What I have done?” He replied to himself._


	21. Prisioner of Time (Baby)

The timeline goes back” The Doctor said.

“DO you mean… my timeline?” Aiden asked, with a hopeful bright in his eyes.

“Yes, but we must go foward” The Doctor responded, pulling a silver lever. The TARDIS lights began to oscilate, as the whispering deep sound filled the main room.

“Wait, go forward how?” Mason asked, confused. The Doctor and Aiden looked one each other, and silently agreed who had to talk.

“Ok, short resume: We’re on a time machine that can travel across the space and we must get out of a sort of roulette of timelines before these change again” Aiden said, smiling at the sound of himself saying the weird context in which they were; some corner of his consciousness tasting a little of mabelness in his words…

\- _Piedmont, California. A year and half ago…_

“_So we jumped out of the giant Mabel-bubble mounting in Waddles as it exploded into a bunch of gigantic confetti and we fell on it like a dusty bunch of loser candy out from a piñata. And just as I thought the things were going to put better I saw the oddpocalyptic mess what Gravity Falls became and I just said ‘Oh boy’” Mabel was telling to Aiden, amused, as they were still unpacking the huge cardboard box of souvenirs she used to pick from the town every summer she and Dipper had been there. As usual, Mabel was telling Aiden about their adventures in Gravity Falls, and retell her chronicles of Weirdmaggedon was something she found a special fondness about. Dipper had no doubt in how unbelievable such histories could to sound to Aiden’s eyes, so he didn’t cared about what she could say about (With the condition of ignore every detail about Wendy, his time with the Manotaurs, or the whole “Disco Girl” incident in the hub of Barf Fairies). So Mabel talked about such marvelous adventures with her closest friend with no remorse, and gift some of such souvenirs had become an usual habit to her. Soon she and Dipper could depart to another summer of supernatural family adventures, so she had to free space from the cardboard box. A perfect chance to get rid of unused stuff and spend time with her friend; after that, there were three months of full Dipper-time._

_Aiden picked up an orange t-shirt with grey arms, one that looked to suit him, and liked it immediately. “How about this one?” he asked, curious._

_“Oh! That’s one of Gideon’s stuff he insists to give us every summer. Soos and Melody gets rid of the most of it before I can bring something here. Do you like it?” Madel asked, poking her cheeks in a Lil’Gideon falsetto. Aiden chuckled firefly, as usual._

_“Of course. I’m going to gym from tomorrow, this will display my future muscles babe” Aiden said, extending the orange shirt in middle air._

_“Whaaaaaaa! No way boy! Bring Dipper someday, he’s upset with his noodle body the whole time” Mabel exclaimed merrily. Then both laughed aloud, in the middle of another happy day…_

“A what?” Mason replied, confused. And the nostalgic smile of Aiden melted into a frowning face. Suddenly, the cloister bell echoed across the room, and this shaked again, this time interruptedly, along the flicking of the light.

“No way! What’s this time?!” The Doctor claimed at the air, at the sight of a huge, bulky megastructure hitting the TARDIS against her borders. A sprouting tidal wave ran across the room, shaking the guts of everyone there.

“Thisss- this feels wrong..” Mason said weakly, putting her hand over her forehead before to fall to ground. Aiden approached at full speed, grabbing her before she could hit the floor.

“Mason. Mason! Dipper wake up!!” Aiden yelled at her, trying to wake her up.

“It’s the concussion boy! The time waves are hurting her” The Doctor replied, when they heard the voice.

“This is the Police. Time Police. You’re traveling on an unauthorized vehicle; leave it with the hands up, you’re under arrest…”

\- _Gravity Falls, Oregon. Planet Earth, Mutter’s Spiral, Universe 47’\; a year and half ago…_

_Dipper was holding herself with all her stretch of the tangling roots; being her only chance between her and 50 meters to a painful freefall to the lake. Above her, the floating Head Beast was moving fast, trying to give her distance from the hell that was happening at the edge of the lake._

_Director Carson’s invasion to Gravity Falls has gotten into a full scale battle. People, Monsters, Magical Beings, all working together to save the valley from his ambition. The last week his secret agency dedicated all its efforts to capture all the creatures, savage all the oddities, and put every citizen behind bars for unbearable inhuman purposes. But the Pines family had put all its efforts to save the town once more, and now the battle was being won. The brave people and beasts had made the mostly of such army to retreat, but Director Carson was far from give up…_

_Mabel was running as fast as she could, trying to reach the bridge, dropping particles of dust and mud from her dirty yarn sweater, as she was seeing how Director Carson was unfolding his gun, and pointing it to the floating Head Beast, just where Dipper was holding herself for her life._

_“I’ll get my revenge stupid girl” He said with a malevolent grin. He had a perfect aim, and was pointing right into Dipper’s chest._

_“No way!!!!” Mabel yelled at him in the right moment she tackled him. The gun shoot itself, sending the bullet to Dipper’s direction…_

_“Ok, let’s do this big guy, just don’t let me fall” Dipper said, still holding the roots. Suddenly, she felt an intense pain going through her left forearm, and she screamed, letting go the roots she was holding with her left hand. Her right hand didn’t hold their roots so much, and she fell straight into the cold, misty waters, looking in mute fear how she was getting farther and farther from the floating beast, and her hat being carried away by the winds…_

Mason opened her eyes abruptly. A hot tissue over her forehead, a cold smooth floor beneath her, and a paining thirst, were the first things she perceived, and she proceeded to sit quickly over this new surroundings. The Doctor appeared quickly, putting the tissue back to her forehead with a concerned smile.

“Take it with calm Mason, you received a hard hit” The Doctor said, softly and friendly, just as Mason remembered how her Aiden used to be.

“I’m getting tired of fall unconscious wherever I go, it’s getting stupid!” She replied, noting a tired, raspy tone in her voice, most like being tipsy.

“It’s the concussion, I had to take more care of you about that” He began to say.

“What happened?” Mason asked. The Doctor looked at the walls of the white cell, sensing the incoming of another long explanation.

“I feel we’ll have a plenty of time to talk my lady. Luckily, I had been in worse situations; we’re going to figure how to rescue your friend” The Doctor said, putting on feet.

“You sound very sure about” Mason relied with a defying smile, as The Doctor began to scan the surroundings with the sonic screwdriver.

“Mhmm, a hyper-phasic locking of codes powered by antron metafields. Maybe you’re right about that; whoever trapped us belongs to a kind of beings I tend to evade” The Doctor told her. He remembered his old times when he faced the arrogant, maddening, wiggly gods from the outer Reality; creatures he had not to avoid in a long time, since most of them ran away because the Time War. If he was right about the nature of their captors, he could guess immediately why despite not to choose him to take him out of the cell, they still took precautions to trap them. They had to know about the Time Lords, and they had to know something about what was happening thousands of years behind them. But confusingly, they were still alive. The Doctor frowned, uncomfortable for the next logic step… “So, what’s your story Mason?”

“My story?” She replied, a litle confused.

“Yes. When I found you, you where being atacked by a swarm of winged giant eyes. I assue you’re not native from the Void, and you’re not here for accident” The Doctor said, looking at her. 

“It’s more complicated than that. I can say the same to you; Aiden told me you were in a war or something?” Mason replied defiantly. Suddenly she got aware of how rude that could sound, and lifted her hands, a little frantic “Ow! Sorry sorry! I didn’t meant to… Thanks, for save me”

“Your’re welcome” He said kindly. “I guess I’m the one with more answers to offer, after all”. Mason laughed briefly, feeling like the old man was being sultry.

“So you can asure me you’re that interesting” Mason said, with a smiley frown,

“Well, I have more than 800 years, I’ve lived a few interesting things” The Doctor replied, walking towards her.

“Wow, that’s a lot of time for a person… unless… No, that can’t be” Mason said, shaking her head.

“What?” 

“Weeell I thought you cold be a kind of alien or something but you look pretty humman to me…” She began to say.

“Gallifrey” The Doctor interrupted, making Mason to look at him.

“What?”

“That’s the name of my planet. Gallifrey”

“WOw, you’re really an aien?” Mason inquired.

“Well, you could be an alien too for me, miss” The Doctor told her. “We could fill the time we’re here meeting us better, would you like it?” He said as he finally sat over the white floor”

“You don’t look as a talkative man” Mason said.

“Iv’e been fighting too much time, everything I could want now is to talk” The Dctor replied, looking at the hollographic fence that was keeping them inside their cage.

“I see. Well, I guess if we have to fear about something or be prepared is more practic if we know each other first. But do you… think Aiden will be fine?”

“Of course miss, he’s a little bit of me, no one else is better in the field than a Doctor…”

Aiden opened his eyes, closing them immediately at the sight of the intense light that was over him. The light decreased, so he opened them again. From engulfing shadows, the image of an immense infant became clearer as its enormous body approached him, noticing a red, shinning red symbol in the forehead of the giant, something that looked like a sand clock. Aiden tried to move his arms, just to notice they were chained to a wall, as well his legs.

“HUMAN” The deep voice echoed deeply in his ears. The huge, fat baby, of the size of a skyscraper made himself visible in front of him. His serious, bulbous eyes looked at him with troubling uneasiness, as his giant chubby hands opened and closed continuously, certain sign of anxiety. “SPEAK YOUR NAME” the giant baby said.

“Aiden! My name’s Aiden. Aiden Zimmerman” he responded with hurry, not sure if feel fear, hilarity or confusion. The gigantic baby frowned, as if he had hoped that answer.

“I AM THE TIME BABY, LAST HEIR OF THE TIME GIANTS, PROTECTOR OF THE TIMESTREAM, SUPREME LEADER OF ALLLLL AGES” The baby spoke, approaching his face to Aiden to appoint his words. “AND YOU, YOU ARE A TRANSGRESSSION” He replied with disdain.

“A- A transgression?” Aiden asked; now he knew he should feel confused.

“THE REGION OF HISTORY WHICH YOU BELONG TO… IS BROKEN! ALL OF OUR ATTEMPTS TO FIND ITS CORE HAD ENDED IN FAILURE. AND NOW, YOU ARE HERE, YOU HAD ESCAPED… WITH HELP OF THIS!” The Time Baby spoke with severity, pointing at some place in the darkness, which immediately brightened. The TARDIS was there, trapped in neon green chains, with dusty spots everywhere. Two mans in black suits and green screens over their right eyes stood in front of it, charging in their hands two big guns with complex features.

“That’s the TARDIS, I was helped get out of my time… Where’re The Doctor and Mason? What did you did with them?” Aiden replied, trying to break his chains.

“THE OUTLANDERS ARE SAFE AS LONG AS YOU COOPERATE. BUT NOW YOU SHALL RESPOND: HOW DID YOU SUMMON A TIME LORD? WHAT THE FEMALE HAS TO DO WITH YOUR SCHEME? WHO IS YOUR LEADER?!” The Time Baby inquired, angrier.

“I didn’t anything! The Doctor came here in search of a war lord from his dimension! I- I don’t know how Mason came here…” Aiden began to respond, feeling himself more and more nervous.

“LIER! THE CHRONOLOGICAL SIGNATURES OF YOUR VESSEL POINT AT YOU AS ITS OWNER! BESIDES, THE TIME WAR IS BLOCKED FROM THE MULTIVERSE. NOTING CAN GET OUT THAT HELLISH PLACE!” The Time Baby interrupted him, his sand clock mark glowing with his infuriation, as he pointed at Aiden with his chubby index finger.

“Is this a kind of jock?! I don’t know how to use the TARDIS! I can explain…”

“SO, DO YOU KNOW THE NAME OF YOUR VESSEL!” The Time Baby inquired, getting serious. His sand clock mark began to shine with intensity, as the illumination began to descend. “SPEAK WITH TRUTH OR YOU WILL KNOW YOUR DEMISE” The Time Baby shouted his last warning. Aiden got sweaty very fast; surely he didn’t know how much he really wanted to live until that moment, as all his regrets and things he felt he should fix passed in front of him, when a squeaky voice interrupted both.

“Sir. Excuse me Sir. All Powerful Lord” the squeaky voice said, as both turned at their left, following the direction of the voice. “The lie detector marks positive, he’s telling the truth Sir.”

“WHAT?! Y DID NOT YOU TOLD ME WE WERE USING ONE?!” The Time Baby asked, furious.

“It’s the protocol Sir. We have to use one in every personal interrogation” The squeacky voice said. The Time Baby slapped in his face, disdained, as his mark ceased its glowing. Then snapped his fingers, and the chains of Aiden and the TARDIS disappeared, letting him to fall to ground. Aiden raised quickly, as the expression of Time Baby changed to a more sympathetic one.

“OH RIGHT HUMAN. I HEAR YOU” He spoke.

“Good. This is what happened,…”

\- _Gravity Falls, Oregon. Planet Earth, Mutter’s Spiral, Universe 47’\; a year and half ago…_

_The Gooblerwonker put Dipper delicatey over the groundwith his jaw, as the crowd walked away. Mabel and Grunkle Stan ran in her direction, and she put quickly on knees, recharging her hear over her breast._

_“It’s not breathing!” She yelled as she raised her head, and looked at her sister’s face. She was pale and soaked, her birthmark uncovered from her wet hair. A deep punching feeling hit her stomach, as if it was telling her the worst. “OH no no no no…”_

_Dipper opens her eyes heavily, in the midlist of a funny sensation. She feels as if she’s floating (A natural conclusion to fall to a lake) but she does not feel cold or wet at all. Oddly more, why’s she breathing if she feels her hair floating? She does not last too much in notice her surroundings, to give account that she’s not in the lake anymore. An endless sky of misty, glittering pink space extends to infinity, and she can hear the weak mumbles of an endless supply of voices. A shadow casts over her (stranger yet, due the light does not seems to come from any specific direction) and she turns around with the sole will of do it. Then she see it. Bigger than the words can describe, the pink cosmic amphibian of wiggling gills and funny face floats at short distance from her. The beast is so cute that even she can see it with no remorse, a relieving fact to notice from an obvious cosmic monstrosity. But what it wants from her, to drag her from she was? She’s more confused than ever._

_“Hi, Pinetree” The beast talks with no movement in its mouth._

_“Ah… Hi? Hehe” Dipper answers with a nervous smile._

_“Surely you have answers, that I can respond. Sit down please, I have bean bag seats” The amphibian says, materializing a bag under her butt. She seats with questionable comfortability, still a little frenzied for what she was doing before end wherever she is now._

_“Yeah! You’ll see… I’m sure you know I was on an important business before be… here! And I’m a little troubled about what exactly you want from me” She said, trying to not sound too scared nor uncomfortable._

_“Don’t have fear Pinetree, I won’t hurt you. I’m here to instruct you in an important mission” The amphibian says, with a merry tone in its voice._

_“Ooook, I listen” Dipper says, still unsure of the situation._

_“As you may know, beings like me can’t help others without do such a mess in lower levels of the Reality, so we must choose champions to accomplish the tasks that Multiverse needs to keep in peace and sanity. Whole civilizations and worlds depends of our sight and advice, and you’ll help me in the future, to the achievement of a great task!” The amphibian said enthusiastic. Dipper feels her stomach heavy, sensing the true of every word coming from the majestic being._

_“I-.. What I have to do…”_

_“First at all, breath…”_

_Dipper coughed aloud before to open her eyes, feeling the soft touch of a pair of lips pressing her opened mouth getting apart from her. She vomited an important quantity of water before to open her eyes, as she felt how a delicate hand was lifting her head. Her heavy eyelids opened, and the first thing she saw was Mabel’s face, cryingly smiling at her. Dipper smiled back, happy to see her. _

_ But then something more began to settle place in the feelings of that moment, something that shouldn’t. Dipper began to feel the blood flowing to her cheeks, and a fluttering sensation in her stomach with the mere sight of Mabel’s eyes as her full body apparently lost weight. Something was going massively wrong with her, something she frightfully was beginning to unpuzzle…_

“… Aaaand that was the first time The Axolotl manifested to me. And that was also the day I discovered I was in love with my own sister” Mason ended to say, waiting for a heavy, judgmental look from The Doctor’s eyes, almost with the need to close her eyes to resist the hit of such a familiar expression. But instead, she saw another aidenian compressive glance.

“It seems like you’ve passed a lot of things miss” The Doctor replied, seated along her.

“Do… don’t you think it’s something wrong?” Mason asked, surprised.

“Mason, I’ve been travelling across the universe for more than eight centuries, and I’ve seen things that are wrong in ways that could break your heart and mind simultaneously. But in most worlds I’ve been there’s always a demon to defeat. Sometimes is fear, despair, disgust, ignorance, or simply hatred for something. And I’ve been witness of the consequences of not conquer them. The wars of the humanity of my universe, the Cybermen, the Daleks… The war in which I am. However I’ve seen it to manifest, the Love is the strongest of wills, and the best weapon against the demons. Don’t think it as a magical force that does everything for you. Love, real love, is a direction, a force that drives you to go forward and set things in place. If love is the path you choose, Love is the destiny you’ll have” The Doctor said, putting a hand over her shoulder. Mason chuckled briefly, looking at the photonic wall that was keeping them imprisoned.

“You make it to sound so easy” she said, remembering her own hellish life story. The Doctor laughed aloud, and looked at her.

“Who else could know it’s a hard way to follow?” He asked her. With no warning, the photonic wall disappeared, and both saw Aiden, standing in front of them with a relaxed expression.

“I think I got some help guys” He said proudly, with his fist over his waist…


	22. The Great Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The race for the Universe has started for the twins... if they can escape from home.

“…Dipper? Dipper?” Grunkle Ford spoke in the phone, trying to cut the long pause after telling him that he knew what was happening with him and Mabel.

“I…” Dipper was out of words. Surprise, fear, shame, all of them punching his stomach like a brick falling over an air-filled balloon. Mabel was looking how he slowly was driving himself to angst, and immediately imagined the truth.

“Dipper, listen me. It´s ok, I understand it. You have nothing to worry about…” Ford began to say him, but none of his words calmed him down the least. Dipper´s despair train had already gone, and immediately he began to sweat and redden his eyes, wondering how many horrible things Grunkle Ford could´ve thought about them, how angry or disgusted or distant or even disappointed he should had become about knowing. Before to begin to think how Grunkle Ford could have known it, his mind spiraled to Grunkle Stan’s opinions. And with no warning his hand was over his forehead, resisting the urges to crumble in sobs.

“Im sorry! I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry…” Dipper began to said over and over again, unable to resist the boiling of his stomach.

“Dipper!! Listen me!” Ford screamed, and Dipper ceased to spin around the room, as his shut eyes opened wide. Officially he had given up of get help from his grunkles, and know the only thing he had to do is listen how his last hopes were going to be carried away. His eyes shut again, feeling the brick wall falling into him, when he listened Grunkle Ford again.

“Dipper… I don’t hate you. Neither Mabel. Please, focus. I’m here, talking to you. Don’t panic.” Grunkle Ford told him with a level of seriousness he had never listened from him. His frenzy slowly began to cease, as he opened his eyes again. There was a short pause, this time from Grunkle Ford, and he concluded that he was waiting for him to calm down. “Ok, are you more calm now?” Grunkle Ford asked.

“Yes, I am.” Dipper said weakly.

“Good. Dipper, I… had this conversation with both of you so many times in so many lives to understand what really there is between you and Mabel. And I accept it. I’d like had spoken with both of you before, help you to pass through this, but there are forces in this universe that are watching us and I had to be cautious. The only you have to know now is that we love you both, no matter in which thing happens between you two, we won’t judge it in any way or try to interfere, ok?” Grunkle Ford spoke to him. Dipper smiled and cried at same time, for the huge weight he had no anymore. After all, they weren’t alone with this madness anymore.

“Ok” he replied, whispering aloud.

“Ok, now I want to talk with Mabel”

Dipper looked at her, warmly grinning at him. Surely she had catched what happened, so she didn’t need further explanation. He passed her the phone, and saw how her placid smile turned into curious confussion, as she heard what Grunkle Ford was telling her to do.

“In the borders?” Mabel exclaimed. Every few moments she nodded silently, as if she was receiving instructions. Then put the phone over the bed and went for the huge box of art craft supply she had under her bed, and began to grab things and putting them aside.

“Ehmmm, Mabel?” Dipper asked her.

“Pack food Dips, Grunkle Ford told me to make four pair of pink glasses with glitter, we’ll meet in the docks in three hours” Mabel answered, scissoring pink plastic sheets meticulously. Dipper understood that there was a plan behind that, and judging how hard Mabel was working the glasses, that was something of first need.

“Right, see ya in twenty” Dipper said as he walked to the door. Mabel threw a hard laugh, with a proud tone.

“I bet I’ll ready in fifteen bro-bro Marlboro” Mabel said to him, turning to see him.

“Deal” He replied, before disappear behind the door.

Sixteen minutes later Mabel was running downstairs as Dipper had collected all sorts of fast food they had in the kitchen inside his backpack emptying its contents over the kitchen desk before. They met at the front door, and looked each other, with nervous determination.

“Scared?” Dipper said.

“Naah! We’re just to running away from home to help to beat a space frigging bad guy as usual” She replied with a frowned smile as she waved her hand.

“Ok, dumb question” Dipper answered. His guts didn’t help to identify what he was feeling. But some of that got ordered as their glances met. “We’re going to solve this Mabel, I promise.” He said as he held her cheek with his hand. She smiled back to him, in a frozen stance of full confidence.

“Come at me bro” She said, to just after smack her lips against his. For a moment the rest of world just went away, as a signature of how no matter the odds, they were going always the one for the other. The seconds passed, to them, almost ignoring they were on hurry, and completely ignoring that his father was looking at them in middle stairs.

“WHAT THE FU-?!!!” They heard the furious voice of their father as horrific as a screamer on a video. Their faces lost color in middle kiss and not even caring for turn apart each other, they looked at their confused progenitor. He had a sort of mixture between frowning anger, wrinkles of pure disgust and wide open eyes of pure horror. Probably the fact of see him in pajama made their worst fear more bearable, because in that moment Dipper began to talk in a faked casual tone.

“Ahmm… Ok. We’re just goin’ to..” He began to say, as he held the door’s latch and giving it a slow round. “Run!” He screamed to Mabel, and before their father could catch them, they were on the other side of the door, holding it with their full forces.

“Dipper! Mabel! Open the door! Open the door now!” Their father was screaming behind the door, making it stomp against the frame every time the twins beat him in keep it closed.

“Dipper, turn on the van, I’ll keep him busy” Mabel shouted.

“But-“

“Now” Mabel replied. Dipper nodded, and ran to the van, getting in trough the copilot’s door and not bothering in close it, turned it on. Such scandal surely had awoken their mother, because before Mabel could give account, both parents were pulling the door, as she distinguished their mother’s pleas behind the door.

“Mabel, what the heck you two are doing?!” She heard their mother’s panicked voice behind the door.

“No time to explain Mom” Mabel inquired trying to sound calmed, but in fact her presence was seriously freaking her out. Suddenly everything became more real: they really were doing this. Then, a moment of dipperous geniality, and she just let the latch go, running in the opposite direction. Most probably their parents fell right into ground that moment, because in the right moment she closed the copilot’s door their parents ran out the house, with rabid glances.

“Push Dipper!!” Mabel yelled, and he pushed the accelerator at full speed, leaving their house behind, and their parents with it. Dipper glanced quickly the scene thru the back mirror. His father was with his hands over her head in furious despair, and her mother was with hers over her mouth. Just after, he turned his attention to the road, as he and Mabel breathed agitated.

“Oh MY snap. Oh my holly jesussly Snap!! We… We just ran from home!” Mabel began to yell, more amused than scared. She began to chuckle, every time louder, as Dipper followed in their nervous laugh.

“We did it we did it!” Dipper replied, stopping his laugh. “Now what”.

“We must reach the docks. Onwards Dipper! To the…” Her amused proclaim was interrupted by the ring of Dipper’s phone. Believing it was Grunkle Ford for some unsaid reason, he picked up the call, instead hearing the yelling of their mother.

“Dipper what’s going on?! Your father said you two were kissing!” He heard from her thru his cellphone.

“Mom I…” His unpracticed response was interrupted by his dad as he took the phone, yelling at him with a more furious humor.

“Listen me you ungrateful freak! Whatever you did to your sister I swear I’m going to make you to pay! Did you listen me?! Now stop your fu$%#ing car and face me man to man!” His father shouted. Something in his words caught Dipper’s attention, and he looked again at the back mirror. They were on their own car, follow him at full speed.

“Mabel, they’re chasing us!” Dipper shouted, anxious.

“Chill out Dip, I’ll call the Grunkles” Mabel replied, taking her phone.

\- Meanwhile, in the docks…

“… So we were there, ambushed by a freaking giant squid, in middle of the storm” Grunkle Stan was telling the story to a pair of amused old ladies over the table, looking at him with flirtatious expressions.

“What you did then?” One of them replied, the other waving her purple fan.

“I put my brother aside and I punched the wiggle freak in his only eye!…” Stan answered, feeling the pick-up approaching, when Ford entered thru the restaurant’s doors with the phone in hand.

“No time Stan, we’re going” Ford said to him without looking at the old ladies.

“Wha-? But we arrived earlier” Stan inquired, lightly startled.

“Their parents are pursuing them” Ford replied with sternness. Stan’s face turned into an “Oh” and looked at the old ladies.

“Sorry my beauties, we have to run to another adventure” He said as he walked quickly to the doors along Ford.

“Good luck, Stanley” The old lady with the fan said to him as they crossed the doors.

\- 20 minutes later…

“A stolen car, Stanley! How do you though a stolen car could be a good idea?!” Ford yelled at him from the copilot’ seat.

“I wasn’t going to wait ten minutes for a stupid Uber, Sixer” Stan replied, zig-zaging on the road to get ahead of the nearby cars. “How’re the kids?”

“Mabel, how’s everything there?” Ford talked to her thru the phone.

“We’re on the highway, but we can’t lost them” Mabel responded.

“Don’t worry Mabel, we’re coming there” Ford said, just before the phone slipped out his hands due the sudden movement of the car. Ford just looked behind them how his phone crashed against the concrete before to quickly return his face to Stan.

“I can’t believe it Ford! You just lost another cellphone! How can you have more fingers in each hand and losing things out of your bare hands?!” Stan yelled in disbelief.

“In fact – It was _your_ phone” Ford said, looking at him with pretended innocence.

“Really?!” Stan shouted angrier. “Oh right, you throw my cellphone to the highway? I throw your cellphone to the highway!” he said, as he took Ford’s cellphone from the car desk and threw out of the car.

“Stanley are you crazy?! How we’ll call the kids?!” Ford yelled at him.

“Oh no” Stan responded in a quiet expression. “- Hey! I see them! Here we go kids!” Stan yelled, speeding at full…

“I see the grunkles, Mabes!” Dipper said, looking at the back mirror.

“Their phones aren’t answering Dip, I can’t talk to them” Mabel answered, frowning in disbelief.

“We’re close now, don’t –“ Dipper’s argument was suddenlty interrupted with the hit of a nearby car going in the opposite direction, and the van spun around right to the right side of the road, breaking the iron fences and getting a couple meters inside the morning grass. Mabel opened her eyes, lifting her head; luckily she had her seat belt, and only got a little sore for the impact. Then she looked at Dipper, and her stomach fell at the bottom of her body. He hadn’t put his seat belt, and his head had hit the door’s window, evidenced by the cracks in the glass and a little stain of blood.

“Oh no no no no…!” Mabel began to say, as she took off her belt and got out the car, speeding to Dipper’d door and opening him. “Dipper… Dipper!” She shouted, seeing him resting his head over the seat, unreactive. Nearby she listened the rasping sounds of two cars stopping abruptly…

_Dipper opens his eyes, hoping to feel an intense pain in his head, remembering the hit. But his head doesn’t hurt; in fact he doesn’t feel anything at all. He looks around himself, and finds himself floating over a misty blueness, a place that some corner of his mind recalls with violence. He doesn’t feel the pain, but his head feels the mental struggle of being punched in the face. Then, he hears a voice, a voice that sounds much like his, but pretty much softer and high…_

_“Dipper…. Dipper?” He hears from the distance._

_“Who’s there”? Who are you?” he says aloud, looking at every direction, without finding someone in absolute._

_“Dipper! You must listen to me. We’re coming, but I need to know where you are… Dipper!…”_

Grunkle Stan, Ford, and the parents of Dipper and Mabel ran into the grass field to the car as fast as they could, their parents coming in first. Mabel was seat over the grass, with Dipper between her arms, unconscious.

“Dipper! Dipper wake up” Mabel shouted, as his brother remained unresponsive. Then she saw the silent shadows over them, and knew the race had ended. But then, just as their parents were going to speak, probably something useless and inquiring, Dipper’s birthmark began to shine. It’s light was bluish and calming, with a little sound akin to glass pieces rubbing it selves. The spark endured just a seconds, but was time enough to the grunkles could come in and see it for their own, along their parents. As the light faded, Dipper then opened his trembled eyes, and saw Mabel’s face, drawing a weak smile in the moment.

“Dipper!” Mabel shouted aloud, letting go a crying chuckle and kissing him hard.

“Mabel, my head” He said to her when their lips got apart.

“Dang! Sorry sorry…” She said quickly and embarassed.

“What… What is happening” Their father spoke, completely troubled.

“Help first, explanations later” Mabel answered, stealing Ford’s words…


	23. Love and Forgiveness

Dipper’s van had been marooned for several hours in the grassy intersection. The middle late began to draw strange shadows over it; over the cracked windows, and the dried blood trail, over the maneuver and the old cushion of the seats. Like a fossil of what could’ve been. It stood between the grass leaves with a nostalgic mixture of pateticity and majesty, waiting to be removed in night for the authorities… then something appeared several meters behind.

Unsettling, greyish and silent, the young male of diffuse skin walked among the grass field, dragging his coat behind him, sustaining his shakily steps with the help of his huge golden rod. The yellowish grass leaves in his nearby suddenly became greener as they dwarfed and disappeared in floor, as the flowers in it became bottoms and were sucked away by the floors from which they sprouted, leaving a trail of humid ground. The young male reached the car, touching its old metallic cover, until he reached the door. His nostalgic face passed his fingers across the cracks, undoing them at their mere touch. The dried blood got liquid and fell over the grass, disappearing into the floor. The young male looked at the reformed door with sadness and homesickness, trembling his greyish fingers as he put a drop of blood over his index finger and smelled it with concentration. 17 years, male, with Pines ascendency. He had no doubt who he was, and for a moment, he had the urge of cry. But them smelled something more in its trail. A trail of scent was driving him out to the highway. He smiled with pride, and then frowned with determination; he had found them. But in a horrid twist, they were part of transgression, that meant the things were fairly more complicated than his Master could had believed. But he was not going to give up; for the past, and for everything that had to be saved.

He roared high at the skies, and just after, darkened and waggled figures began to emerge from every dark corner in the nearby.

“Mice Gorgons. Hunt”

-

“Auch!” Dipper yelled, at the touch of the bandages over his head. When Mabel had gotten the first aid kit and put it in his van without his knowledge was still object of debate, but he was glad she was prepared for it.

“Oh com’ on whimpy baby, it was just a superficial wound” She replied, adjusting the bandages to put the clip over them. “Ready. Brother fixed” She say with a proud smile”

“Wow Mabes, when did you learnt to do that; I can remember we skipped the first aid class in school when I had the accident in gym class” He recalled with curiosity.

“Well, a girl must be prepared in the case his dear broshep goes on the friggin’ chase of the Hide Behind” She answered. “Seriously Dipper, that time you freaked the Mabel out. So I took classes with Grenda’s dad, just in case”

“Hehe, sorry for that” He said, rubbing his nap. Quickly Mabel grabbed his hand out of the way of bandages, with an acussing face. “Hey! Nothin’ of akward body language Dipper, I just put them on”

So both laughed, recalling other adventures, as their parents looked at them sit over a bank, recharged over the car.

Stan had learned a long time ago, that the best part of go in a rush on a stolen car was that any possible awkward situation can be shouted with the overload of awkwardness that the sole fact of be in a stolen car supposed to be, so Mabel had enough time to attend Dipper’s wounds with no intervention of their parents, and they in exchange, had enough time to relax about the messy situation in which they just fell. Early night they stepped over a gas station, so Mabel could put Dipper the bandages, and the Grunkles could talk with their parents about all that was happening.

Dipper and Mabel’s Dad was looking them with heartbreaking stubbornness, unable to process the scene. Seen from outer eyes, they could perfectly pass for just another teen couple, sharing a lovely moment. But he was their father, the one who saw them born and grow and become persons, and put out the most basic conventions about family out of the factual reality was something he just hadn’t the enough force to do. Her wife was almost in the same situation. Even when her sobs stopped a while ago, her eyes stood sprouting tears of silent despair. In her mind, what was happening with her children had to be a tragedy, a twisted result of some dark, unromantic situation at all. Ford and Stan just were watching them as they descended into despair, so after a quick glance, both accorded that Ford should speak about. But in the moment, Dipper’s father stole him the moment.

“How did you knew about them?” He questioned them with stern fury.

“I remember. I any other timeline occurs exactly the…”

“Get it off Ford!!” He interrupted him with a severe yelling. “Since you came here the family had just being trembling. Forgive Uncle Stan for lie to us all these years? Sure. Letting Mabel and Dipper go to Gravity Falls and be closed to you two despite the ruse? I can deal with it. Hear Another of you Fuc&%ng explanations about your fuc%$ng scify lies again? Just… Just don’t do that” He ended to say, holding his urges to punch him in the face. “Just tell me how did you knew it”

Ford took off his glasses and passed his fingers over his eyes, disdained. “Aaron, you saw your own son’s forehead glow blue a few hours ago. Try to explain it with normality. Come on, do it” And he got out of words, gulping with fury as he pressed his chin. “Look… I know how you feel about. I can recall feeling the same way the first time I knew about. But then it kept happening, over and over again. You – you can’t imagine the least how hard had been this years to me. How hard is to keep the mind with _millions_ of years of alternate lives inside my head. How many versions of Dipper and Mabel we got to help due your bad choices. Even when were timelines in which you two understood, every one of the recent ones just put things worse. And you know what? What they more feel worry about their mutual feelings is that you two hate them forever for that. I’ve seen you do and say things that almost destroyed them, over and over again. And you know what? I understand it. Because is hard of chew, and every time you have to pass with this you do it for first time and you’re alone with all the world above your backs. But this time _we_ are here to help you; you haven’t to do this alone” Ford said to them , every time more soft in his voice.

“But… If we accept this… what kind of parents will that turn us into?” Dipper and Mabel’s mother asked, her lips trembling.

“It had nothing to do with you Ann. This always happens. Is… Destiny. You’re not bad parents; in fact, I can say that they always act in the way they act at respect due your teaching, because they trust you. And no matter how bad can sound, the best you can do is to help them to bear with it, just as we do” Ford said to her.

“It is really so easy to you?” Aaron said defiantly.

“No, It isn’t. But I love them, and most important, I trust them. If you only knew how many incredible things they had done, how brave and noble and strong they had been despite everything, you could understand it easier. No matter how much evidences we might put in front your faces right now, the most important thing you have to do is trust. Just that”

“Aaaaaand, I think I’m enough prove of how bad things get when you fail at do it” Stan interrupted them. “We could tell you about our adventures but I’d prefer to them tell you for themselves”. Stan finished. Then they looked back at the bank in which they were. They looked so happy, and no matter how hard they could try to recall, their “situation” didn’t produce any flaw in them or wicked behavior. In fact, certain things of the recent past matched perfectly in how hard they passed it. They looked one each other, and agreed.

“I come for Dipper” Aaron said. “I let you Mabel.”…

“So, why the glasses?” Dipper asked her.

“Ford said something about protect us from things that can freeze us with mere sight, I didn’t listened so hard” Mabel replied, waving her legs over the bank.

“Like… gorgons?”

“You know best Dip”

“Wait, there are four, and we are six…” Dipper began to say, when they saw their father walking towards them, with a determined glance in his face. Dipper and Mabel looked one each other, feeling the moment to come. Finally, he reached them, and saw to Mabel”.

“Mabel, honey. Your mom needs some help there, she hurtled her wrist when we took Dipper to the stolen car”. The twins looked each other again, and after a fast nodding of Dipper, Mabel turned to see his father.

“ ‘Kay Dad, Nurse Mabel in way” She replied with enthusiasm, packing her first aid box and lifting from the bank. Aaron sit where Mabel was, not looking at his son yet.

“I’ve ever wondered why she has so much energy. When you two were born she kicked the doctor in the face… several times” He said, making himself and Dipper to get out a relieving chuckle. There was a brief pause after, with both of them looking at their respective shoes, and then lifting their faces again. “And you’re so smart. I remember when you made the trap to catch the mouse in the kitchen with a bottle of soda and a few springs patched with duke tape. And you hate mice”

“Yeah, being fair with Mabel she was the one who got rid of it…” Dipper began to remember.

“And it ended to be their classroom pet for two years” Aaron interrupted. Dipper looked at him, and his mind punched him in the stomach again. His father was smiling weakly, but his eyes were glittering. Dipper knew such expression, having seen it in him a few times, all of them hard times in their life. When he got fired from his work, when Grandpa Filbrick died, and when Dipper’s mom car was hit by a train several years ago and they saw her in the hospital bed, reading a newspaper with indifference, because the doctor forgot to tell her she had visitors. It was the looking of a painful acceptance, of a man who gives his pride up, and deals with real life, not fearing to admit he has fear too.

“Dad?” Dipper talked to him, trying to figure what he was doing to do, but failing, his nervousness blocking him from any rational idea.

“All… the stories Mabel told Aiden about were true, they weren’t?” he asked. Dipper’s fears went full speed that moment, to stop dry in the same moment. He was willing to listen, against every probable scenario.

“Yes” He said, anxious of an answer.

“So, gnomes and dinosaurs and zombies and… the giant robot and the spider-people and the cosmic demons, every one of them in fact exist?” Aaron asked.

“I- Yes, they do” Dipper answered. Whatever he was going to do with such information had to be bad, but then…

“So, you helped Mabel to get out of all of that junk, without thinking twice? You two really helped to save the universe?” Aaron replied, weakly shorting his smile.

“I – We had to – I had to – Look I get if you can’t…” Dipper tried to answer, but was interrupted again.

“You did it”

“I… Yes, we did it. All of that is true” Dipper replied, softening his voice. His father had to be dealing with a bunch of facts about real life that could turn anyone mad, so the natural response should be anger, but he was just having that face, and Dipper had no idea of his father’s next step. Aaron looked away to the road, extending the now long pause.

“And… All the weeks you and Mabel got apart… and you were all down, was because you were leaving her to be happy for her own?” He asked. Dipper’s anxious feelings turned into sadness when he remembered that. Most important, they had noticed, and he had concluded, without a word of knowledge about, what Dipper had decided to do and why, despite how much that broke him down.

“I – I was so… I felt guilty and – She didn’t deserve to…” Dipper tried to respond, feeling his eyes to get heavy and moisty. Again he interrupted him, but this time embracing him tightly between his arms. Dipper began to cry almost instantly, not holding what he felt about anymore. Even as his face was buried in his father’s chest, he could hear the sobs coming out from him, and the repeated kisses he planted over his head. “I’m sorry!! I’m sorry so much!…” Dipper began to shout with trembling voice between his sobs.

“It is fine, it is fine…” Aaron tried to articulate, for once in a long time not giving a hell about how strong he should be. But Dipper could not stop to self-hating, not yet.

“No! it is not!! We disappointed you, and Mom!” He cried before to lose his voice in middle of aloud sobs, muted by the fabric of his father’s cloth.

“No! Dipper I… You were all a gentleman, just as I taught you” Aaron said to his son, recharging his chin over his head, as Dipper held his clothes with her hands. “It’s ok, it’s ok. You’re not alone anymore…”

Then for a time lapse of several minutes, father and son embraced each other without letting themselves apart for a single moment. Now Aaron knew his son was afraid, and the best he could do is to let him know, that he was too, so they could be afraid together. The braveness could come after.


	24. The Signal

Mason couldn’t remember the last time she enjoyed so much the fact of drinking water, but every drop of it felt like a wet heaven, almost losing attention of what was happening around her. The voices around her lost a little of clearness, but she stood listening.

“… But, if _there’s_ a core, it must be emitting in a recognizable frequency. Such machinery can’t be controlled outside the grid of timelines!” The Doctor argued. Now he could add “discuss about quantum chronomechanics with a giant baby” in his list of the oddest things he had done.

“PUNY GALLIFREYAN, THE SHIFTING OF TIMELINES SURELY COULD RENDER UNABIAVLE SUCH EMITION TO DETECTION, BECAUSE THE WAVES RUNNING ACROSS THE SPACE BEFORE THE SHIFTING _NEVER _EXISTED AFTER THE SHIFTING!” The Time Baby replied. For first time in millennia, someone rivaled him in matter of knowledge about Time… and that was getting him pretty cranky.

“Exactly, there must be something that preserves the interference despite the changes, the _core_, for example!” The Doctor replied, moving the hologram to a position equivalent to his argument.

“…UNLESS THE CORE HAD TO BE PROTECTED BY SOME TYPE OF EPITEMPORAL LAYER, SOMETHING NECESSARY TO PREVENT IT TO DISOLVE ITSELF DURING THE SHIFTING!” The Time Baby answered, enveloping the core diagram.

“And… Didn’t you occur that due the frequent extradimentional interventions in this universe there are physical intervenors that preserve the wavelength as a form of radiation?!” The Doctor yelled, making a point in the hologram with his finger

“THAT’S ABSURD! EVERY SHIFT HAS ITS OWN EXTRADIMENTIONAL INTERVENORS, THERE ARE INCALCULABLE!!!” The Time Baby answered, making a thousand more points with his fingers.

There was a stalemate. Neither he or the Time Baby could find a solution, despite the knowledge of every one of them in the matters. Aiden limited to look amused at the discussion, as Mason kept drinking water. Then she emptied the last bottle, and after crushing it between her hands, approached to the white table. The Doctor and the Time baby looked at her with confusion, as she put her fingers in the hologram.

“So, two time-developed brains an none of you though in asking me despite I told you about what Axolotl said to me?” Mason asked.

“A SIMPLE RIDDLE DOESN’T OFFERS ANY ANSWER, YOU MUST GET INFORMATION TO SET IT IN FUNCTION” The Time Baby explained.

“Exactly. I am a Pinetree, so the Dipper of this universe, Axolotl told me to help him. Ergo, my family in this dimension is near the core of events. Knowing that _my_ Grunkle Ford traveled across the multiverse, probably _their_ Grunkle Ford made the same thing, and probably he too brought stuff from out there, stuff like a sort of quantum-complex object!” Mason inquired, moving the hologram for her own.

“CHILD, THE PROBABILITES OF SUCH CASUALITY ARE…” The Time Baby tried to say, when the detectors matched to the description.

“Sir. The chronologic marks appoint to a year in XXI century, it’s weak, but is trackable.” A man from the wall computers told, his face illuminated by the light of the screen. Both The Doctor and the Time Baby looked back at Mason, smiling with pragmatism.

“Well, what are waiting for?” Mason replied.

“Wow, you’re good” Aiden told to her.

“Thanks Aiden” She replied with proud. “That’s why one must drink enough water”…


	25. The Meeting

_The TARDIS was flying wild, across the uncharted territories of that new Time Vortex. She was shaking and spinning like a tennis ball against the fearsome metastructures that composed it, eluding the clawing hugs of their wild inhabitants. Inside, in the control room, The console roared and made fluid-like sounds of various tones, as everything around was wiggling and sparkling. The Doctor, Aiden and Mason held to the console the best they could, the last two following the instructions they heard to pilot the TARDIS, wondering how stranger their lives could turn._

_“Doctoooor! We’re close?!” Mason shouted at him, feeling how the shakings were making her position more difficult to hold._

_“The TARDIS is tracking the anomalies! We’re getting close!” The Doctor responded, trying to reach the date in time in the specified time, more worried for the Cyclocks and Sharkloks that were trying to force the entrance to the TARDIS. ”What kind of insane universe has cyclops on its Time Vortex?!”_

_“Wooohooooo!” Aiden screamed, more amused than fearful. Something in the whole situation was making his blood to boil in happiness, the unsaid thrill of moving freely across the whole History made him feel… powerful._

_“Don’t make amusement sounds too sooooon boy! We still have to elude the cyclops!” The Doctor told him, worried for the mental health of his other self. The amused vibe Aiden was pouring was resulting too contagious. “I… Got it!!!!”_

-

Cassie opened her eyes, searched her glasses with her hand across the floor, and once finding them, she put them, not seeing the tyrannosaur sleeping on the other side of the campfire. Her heart raced, as she raised from the ground.

_No!!_

Then she felt the blanket falling from her, and sighed, alleviated.

“Don’t worry girl, we didn’t jump in our sleep. That’s a good new for itself” She heard from behind, turning back to see. Darlene was walking towards her in her human form, holding a stick in her left hand.

“Why the stick?” Cassie asked.

“I like sticks; it’s like have my legs back for a moment. On the other hand, I think I discovered something that could be useful to us, and the stick could help us to evade bear traps”.

“What?”

“Come with me, I’ll show you”

Cassie and Darlene walked across the forest back to the glade, as Darlene explained what she found. “Well, You’re such a heavy sleeper and my partner was on hunt, so I went to explore the glade for myself when I discovered something”.

“What did you discovered?” Cassie asked, still unsure why they were walking to the place where she was almost eaten again barely a day ago.

“Look at your necklace” Darlene inquired, holding hers in her hand. Cassie held hers, and tried to figure what was so special about.

“Mhmm I don’t see anything” Cassie replied with resignation.

“Keep looking at it” Darleen insisted, smiling sneakily.

“The symbols… are speeding?” Cassie replied, almost not believing it. The speeding was hard to notice, but was still happening.

“Yep, and guess in which place they get completely continuous”… Darlene said and Cassie catched almost immediately that was the place to which they were heading.

“When did you discovered it?”

“Yesterday, when we rescued you, but then I had no time to explore it, until now”. Cassie’s eyes widened in realization, and then held Darlene’s hand, pulling to go faster.

“What we’re waiting for then? Come on!” Cassie shouted happily. Darlene smiled at her, and in a mere second she shifted back to his spidery form, too fast to Cassie feel uneasy for.

“Jump to my hairy back girl!” Darlene said, pointing the top of her thorax. Cassie used her spider legs to get up, and in a moment Darlene was running wild between the woods. Cassie chuckled continuously at the increasing speed, holding herself tightly hugging Darlene’s neck with her arms. Darlene was quickly contagiated by the merry vibe of Cassie, and soon both were laughing aloud across the forest, until they headed the glade.

Cassie got out Darlene, as she got back to her human form, both taking the die shards between their hands.

“It’s rolling out of control” Cassie said, still amused; then she got puzzled, worrying about the whereabouts of the die shard. “Wait, why here? And why now? “

“Weeeell I’ve been here before many times and it never got like this. There’re two possible chances” Darlene said, looking at the glades around them.

“Tell me”

“The first is that there’s something bellow that’s stimulating the shards” Darlene said, not too amused for the idea of go to The Burrows… again”.

“Yeah neither I see that as a good idea” Cassie replied, noticing the Darlene’s disgusted expression. “So what’s the second?”

“Oh! That’s my favorite. It’s possible that something will happen here, today, over the ground level” Darlene replied, happier.

“How much time should we wait for that thing?” Cassie inquired, her worry growing around all the possible unpleasant things that could occur if they stay too long there.

“Oh, that’s the amusing part” Darlene responded, trying to sound the same happy as before, but in her depths she didn’t liked too the idea of wait for too long in the creepily silent glade. She then glanced at Cassie. “How about if we sit somewhere? I believe I saw a rock somewhere between the grasses”. Cassie sighed; it looked like they should have to wait a long time.

“So…. How long takes to our dinosaur friend to reach us from when she is…?”

-

The hours passed, as the sun took place in the top of the skies and slowly passed to the horizon, making every time wider shades over the glade. Sometime in the middle late, Darlene picked a deer and some berries from a nearby place, and the rest of the afternoon they spent it talking about how their lives were before to fall prey of the Shifts, and all the things they left behind…

“So, what do you plan to do when all of this ends” Cassie said, sit in front a pine tree, in the mere frontier between the glade and the forest.

“First I’d to worry about how and if this thing will really end, honey” Darlene inquired, lying on the floor with her head over her arms.

“Who do you believe is doing all of this? Sounds… too complicated” Cassie said, troubled with the question. “I mean – What whoever or whatever which is doing all of this really wants? I really imagine that all of this needs a hell of force to even be possible, what it has against Mom and Dad? What they did that’s so important for make all of this. I – I don’t understand what’s going on”.

“Maybe we have to ask first how everything they do ends in first place” Darlene inquired. “Last time Ford and I pondered the options we reached some interesting conclusions, but maybe we’re not the ones to look at it correctly”.

“Well, who is the right one then?” Cassie asked, worried for the answer.

“Mhmm, let’s put the cards over the table. It must be someone who knows them better than anyone who is not themselves could. Someone who knows their whole ‘Mystery Twinn’s deal and their ‘friggin’ incestuous couple’ deal as well. Someone like…”

“… Like me?” Cassie interrupted her.

“You know what? Yes! You’re their daughter. There’s not a single reality in which they didn’t did the things as if they hadn’t been them. So you are the only who knows them so close. So, tell me, who are the results of the things they do?” Darlene replied, looking at her. Cassie smiled, remembering their doings in her on life, plus the timelines she knew.

“They thrive, and make everything around them to thrive. They get themselves out the most impossible odds and whenever they’re together they can reach whatever they propose. And they always look for others, so they inflict that brightness even further, and no matter how demons they may think they have; they always fight for make their best. They’re just… awesome” Cassie said, smiling with pride. They were her parents, the strongest persons she ever knew and could know. She had no idea, but she had reached the conclusion they needed.

“Wow. We hadn’t been there in our last discussion, and now sounds too obvious!” Darlene said, raising her back from the ground.

“What?” Cassie inquired, still not getting it.

“It’s like… If they make everything around them to thrive, that must have important consequences for the future don’t you think?”

“Welll… Yeah, I guess…”

“So, that must mean that History _needs_ them. That whatever they do is required to the rest of the things to go along. That’s a very powerful spark to the flames of the future. And when they do accomplish fullest?” Darlene replied with an inquiring tone in her voice. Cassie frowned, forcing herself to say it.

“When they are together _together_?” Cassie said quietly.

“You doubt it? Look at yourself. I mean – I’ve been on your timeline, and I had seen what they had to do to bring you to existence and make you to thrive despite what you are. Despite everything, you were there and happy and healthy and they never stopped from take care of you. You are part of that spark. That’s a pretty powerful thing you know?” Darlene inquired. Cassie smiled, feeling her eyes glitter. Maybe she had a greater destiny to accomplish, something still to do.

“Wow” She whispered. Then they heard. Murmuring as the wind, but clear as a smacking, the rasping sound began to oscillate from the depths of the nothingness, and both rose from ground, searching for the sound. Then they saw it, moving the grass around it, the glimpse of a big blue box appearing and disappearing, every time more solid. Then the box ended its apparition, making a smoching sound over the ground. Cassie and Darlene looked each other, more surprised than ever. Then they took their necklaces, and saw how the spinning had ceased, the symbols returning to their normal speed.

“Ok, that’s new” Darlene said, with no better words to say.

_The TARDIS finally landed; the chests of the three were breathing heavily. It had been a hell of travel, and finally they had picked up the signal. The Doctor, Aiden and Mason exchanged glances, and sighed almost simultaneously. The Doctor made a brief look at the screen, and then spoke, not so relieved as he should be._

_“Well, we landed on a sort of field. The signals are at a few meters of us and are slowly approaching so…” The Doctor jointed his hands clapping, and smiled at his unexpected companions. “it’s time to say ‘Hello’ “ He said smiling._

_“Wait – Don’t you fear that could be something…. Dangerous?” Mason asked, not so sure of the idea._

_“Whatever has the power enough to make itself to be detected in such way surely could disable the TARDIS’s shields with its mere presence. But it didn’t so, is not that class of power “ The Doctor answered in a hopeful mood._

_“Are you sure?” Aiden insisted, feeling less frenzied._

_“Believe me, I’ve been on a very long war. One learns to recognize. But, I’ll make sure. Stay here, I will go to see”. The Doctor walked at the doors, taking the sonic weapon, and came out._

“What do we do?” Cassie asked, still not sure of what happened.

“I don’t know, this is not part of the plan_”_ Darlene answered. “The last time I saw Ford he told me to find you because I had to stop you of search your parents”. Cassie frowned. For a moment she believed they could resume her search; telling them the truth or not, letting them at the mercy of an unknowable entity in the middle of such a cosmic event was not making her feel very comfortable.

“Ehm – Ok, so what was next?”

“We had to stay here until he can reach us in all the timelines, so we can figure a way of… Oh right, that’s how the plan ended, I got no more” Darlene said, resigned.

“What?” Cassie replied, a little concerned.

“Girl, the timeline is endlessly shifting itself, having had planned all of this took us years” Darlene replied, more serious.

“So… We should take this as part of the plan?” Cassie inferred.

“Maybe, maybe not. Let’s see what happens”

The windowed doors of the blue box opened, revealing an old man holding a silver wide weapon. He was wearing a greyish jacket and a bandolier, and had a pointy haircut forming his dusty hair. The old man looked at them, and made a few steps forward, not moving his weapon at all.

_The Doctor held his weapon tightly, stopping his aims for shoot, when he saw the source of the signal – or better said sources –. Over the windy yellow grass, two girls were standing in front of him. One, a twelve years old girl with messy short hair, white shirt and blue Capri pants; the other, a blonde bronzed teenager with a hippie blue shirt and black pants, covering her hair with a bandana, and two dreamcatcher-like earrings tangling from her ears. Both had necklaces with some sort of bright purple thing, and was obvious for him, that everyone in there were seemly confused. The Doctor drop the weapon with a hand, scratching his head. Certainly, he had no idea of what he was waiting to find. So the seconds passed, and no one said anything until…_

Cassie and Darlene stood silent for a while, confused. Neither they or the old man looked sure of how proceed; if it was part of the plan or something new they had no way to know, and surely, none of them could risk the chance of defend for make an introduction. Then Cassie remembered the las time she got in troubles with a dubious person, so she thought as right to give the exact signal. She uncovered her forehead, showing her birthmark. The old man darted his eyes, and then widened. Quickly, the man came in the blue box…

_The Doctor entered thru the doors walking to the console, where Mason and Aiden waited patiently. The Doctor reached the console, and headed to Mason._

_“Mason, uncover your forehead” He told her puzzled._

_“Why?” Mason replied, slightly confused._

_“Just do it”_

_“Ehm – I donth think…”_

_“Mason” Aiden interrupted her. She sighed, and quit the curly coverture from her forehead._

_“Ready, now what?” Mason said._

_“There’s a twelve-years old girl with a mark in her forehead with the shape of the Cassiopeia constellation. And your forehead mark has the shape of The Big Dipper. So…” The Doctor hadn’t chance to finish his sentence when Mason ran out of the doors._

“How you did that?” Darlene asked Cassie.

“I dunno, it was a thing of the moment I think” She replied.

“I think it’s a very clever movement girl” Darlene said, shaking her hair.

They hadn’t to wait too much, because a few seconds later, a girl went out from the box. Cassie recognized immediately the nose, curly brown hair and cheeks of their parents in her face, and a knitted purple cap remendaded with a pink-yarned pine tree shape. With no warning, the girl uncovered her forehead, showing her own birthmark…

_The little girl’s face turned into confusion, not exactly the response what Mason hoped, but in fact she hadn’t a proposed response at all. Meson felt abruptly awkward, having done a thing she could have sweared in other time to never do. But her showing had a response; the little girl uncovered her forehead as well, and suddenly the two were quiet, in the same stalemate The Doctor was before. Awkward had acquired a full new definition, overall in such a quiet place as the glade was._

“Ehm – Dad?” Cassie asked, breaking the most uncomfortable silence she could remember, as she slowly dropped her hand. Her heart felt a little heavy; it was supposed she had to remember another.

“Nop. I’m pretty sure I have no children at all” The girl replied, dropping her hand as well. “I have to guess you’re a Pines?”

“Yes! I am!” Cassie responded, amused. “Is Dipper your name?” Cassie figured, nervous. She had the feeling of almost had found Dad… In a sort of strange gender-bendered situation.

“Not anymore. Where we met from?” The young woman replied.

“My dad calls Mason, but he calls himself Dipper, for friends, and has your same birthmark” Cassie responded, keeping a uncomfortable balance between amusement and confusion.

“My name’s Mason too” The girl said, frowning. Something was making her feel uneasy. “I guess – You two may want to come in. Is not as snuggly as it looks like.” The girl said.


	26. A Long Way Onwards

If a weeks ago, someone had told Mabel that she was going to tell their own parents about how she ran from the prom to declare her love to her own brother, and that he did the same, she easily could have punched that guy in the face. But they were there, now, over a stolen car, speeding to Gravity Falls, in a desperate attempt to save the universe, and they had promised to keep respectful at everything they could say about, but that they needed to know. So Mabel took the mission to tell them, as Dipper and Grunkle Ford managed the aspects of the plan, trying to ignore the awkward details the most possible.

“… And then the dress wrapped between the bike’s chains and I fell over your azaleas Mom” Mabel keep telling them, as she waved her hand in a unamused expression.

“So it wasn’t a raccoon… Oh mine” Ann replied, looking at the windows. She was resisting the urge to ask about how many “raccoon incidents” weren’t actually ‘cause the raccoons.

“So that explains the bicycle the next day and the dirt over the tapestry” Aaron recalled.

“Yeeeaah it was the best I thought that moment” Mabel replied, scratching her cheek with amused nervousness. “Hey, after all who goes to a prom in a bike after all?” Aaron chuckled, unbelieved.

“Honey, who steals a bike to go back from a prom?” He asked.

“I doo!!” Stan yelled from the front site. Happy memories about how he, Ford and Carla McCorckle ran from their prom came to his mind, he could remember how they ran with Ford in the bicycle basket.

“You’re not helping Stanley” Ford replied from the copilot’s seat.

“Hey, it was her first heist. She’ll do better with time. Look at me! I thought in everything and stole a minivan, I want to see us all snuggled on a dumb Uber” Stan replied.

“Uncle Stan, don’t aim her” Aaron told him. “After all we’re talking to them to assure they won’t have the need to steal bicycles anymore”

“Ooww, but Dad! What about my criminal carieer?” Mabel replied with false disdain.

“Let’s try to delay it Mabel” Ann said. “How’s the research Dipper?” She asked to her son.

“Well, based in what Ford remembers about what I told him the previous Shift, I think who I know who can help us” Dipper said, tackling his laptop over his legs. He passed the computer to the backseat so their parents could see the video. Aaron and Ann felt like they were seeing their children thru a time mirror, a fond look to merrier times.

_Welcome to Dipper’s Guide to the Unexplained, Anomaly #42: The Tooth…_

For a moment, Mabel and Dipper just stared at their parents looking at the screen with nostalgic. “I’d like to have seen this before” Aaron replied, still smiling.

“That’s Bear-O?” Ann appointed. “Ugh, Luckily it disappeared”

“_Dissapeared_, Mom?” Mabel looked at her with an acussing smile. They kept seeing the video until…

_YNITSED RUOY RETNE, NERDLIHC HTUOM YM RETNE! REBMULS YM DEBRUTSID EVAH UOY! NYAAARGHH!!!_

Their parents practically jumped out of their seats, scared at the ominous apparition.

“What the -!!!” Aaron exclaimed, freaked out as a deer for a spotlight.

“Gosh!!” Ann screamed, putting her hand over her breast. Dipper immediately took the laptop off from them, getting red in shame.

Oh! Sorry sorry sorry… I had to told you what it was” He said, trying to smile.

“Wait a second, do you mean that thing can help us?” Aaron said, incredulously.

“Wha- what is that thing anyway?” An asked, seemingly disturbed.

“It’s an adult male from an extradimensional species. A whole family of them lives bellow Gravity Falls Lake” Ford took Dipper’s response.

“How many of that things there are there?” Ann inquired, less calmed.

“Three. Father, Mother and Son” Ford replied

“Why that thing can help us? It appeared as it tried to eat my children” Aaron accused.

“Oh!, let me show you” Dipper said, letting them back the laptop and playing the recording backwards.

_HHGRAAAYN!!! YOU HAVE DISTURBED MY SLUMBER! ENTER MY MOUTH CHILDREN, ENTER YOUR DESTINY!_

“Nothing you’re showing me is convincing me more son” Aaron replied, most uneasy than ever.

“Yeah Dipstick, what it can do apart of throwing us giant teeth?” Mabel asked, seemly confused.

“Well, anything that had been out from universe appears to be immune to the memory changing properties of the shifts. You, Grunkle Ford. So we thought, what about beings that actually come from out there?”

“Waait, Mabel, when you were out from universe?” Aaaron asked her.

“It was a wacky-tackie situation with a bunch of other me Dad, nothing _too_interesting” Mabel waved off looking with smiley proud at other direction.

“Ok, we’ll leave that story for other day. Proceed Dipper” Aaron said. His insides trembled with the idea of a myriad of stories about what their children were doing all these summers.

“Ok. So we thought, what if the island monster was speaking that on purpose? What if was trying to warning us about something?”

“Something like… this?” Aaron asked.

“Very very probably”

“But Ford, why you can’t just ask to your.. youuuuur” Aaron intended to say.

“Jesselbraum Aaron, her name is Jesselbraum. I only can contact her at the interbetween of the shifts. And no shift has occurred in several days” Ford assevered.

“What means we’re alone, aren’t we?” Aaron asked.

“No, we are all here” Dipper interrupted, smiling at them. Aaron returned the smile, to go back to his accustomed serious glance.

“So, let’s hope this works kids; Now, Mabel did you bring some of that koala gummies?” Aaron said.

“Sure Dad! Here are coming two balls of junk candies for our dearest dad!” Mabel yelled, taking the bags out of the backpack.

“Seriously Mabel?” Ann asked.

“Hey, it was Dipper who packed them” Mabel said, poking him with her elbow.

“There were a lot Mabes” Dipper defended himself.

“Oww you dork” Mabel replied, giving him a fast kiss in his lips. They must have heard the sound of glass breaking apart in the mind of their disturbed parents, because immediately they turned to see them, rubbing their respective napes with reddened shame at their faces of silent disgust.

“Oh – We didn’t to – sorry for that… “ They said uneased.

“You know what? It’s ok, you have not to hide it with us. Just…” Aaron began to said.

“…We’ll have to discuss how we’ll manage this from now onwards. You know, the ‘whole world’ thing” Ann concluded.

“Yep, we guess” Dipper said, looking away.

So the Pines family kept its long way back to that hidden place between the woods that was waiting for them, as it did every summer…


	27. The Team Assembles

A starings’ stalemate. Cassie Pines, at her bare twelve years old, had been in two starings’ stalemates in less than a month of separation (Not taking in consideration the abrupt changes that Reality had every few hours or days). The first one, when her family revealed itself at the astonished looking of their old friends. And now, at the confusion of what looked to new friends to her; funny enough, both implied uncovering her family personal signature, her Cassiopeia’s shaped birthmark. If their parents hadn’t disappeared, she could’ve allowed to laugh about. But now such laugh could wait; for now, she was in middle of strange people, saying strange things, as she was being appointed by a strange apparatus that made a strange sound and was giving strange results. Judging for the pitiful eyes of the old bearded man, the news had to be really bad.

“Mhmm,it’s the same radiation suignature of the arachnimorph girl, she has an antron layer over her whole body. Enough to impregnate little objects but enoughly low to be undetected without the right chronological signature” The Doctor said, finishing the scanning over Cassie, who couldn’t put her eyes away from the sonic screwdriver.

“Ehem, Doctor, I am here” Cassie replied, a little distraught. If there was something that made her feel angry, is that grownups talk as if she was not there.

“You’re such a brave girl Cassie” The Doctor recalled with a friendly smile. Cassie smiled back, feeling the happy sensation of being recognized. Unknown to her, is that The Doctor was remembering someone else, someone lost a long time ago, in the fire of the Time War, someone he could never save.

“Thanks” Cassie replied with pride.

“So, she’s real? She is… _actually_ the daughter of Dipper and Mabel?” Aiden asked, not being able to put his eyes away from her. She looked like if Dipper and Mabel ran one against other, crashed, and the remains of both conjoined and walked away in the form of that child. His guts had enough weird impressions for a lifetime.

“Well, I have no enough reference material to give a verdict, but judging for the genetic homogeneity in her DNA, I could say she’s an incest child with all probability”

“Doctor, I’m still here” Cassie demanded. The Doctor chuckled briefly; the girl really got nerve. If only she knew the wild, world-ending treats that despite their ferocity, never could’ve dared to talk him in such way, she would being talking to him in a very different humor.

“I- I don’t understand nothing of this” Darlene said, with her arms crossed and a constant feeling of unsteadiness. “You’re in search of the responsible of the Shifts too?”

“Yep, that’s what we’re doing here” Mason answered. “We tracked the signals coming from the radiation signatures of your quantum-complexed jewelry using the chronologic signals of my other self in this universe, piece of cake” She accomplished. Cassie smiled in warm nostalgia; that’s just how her father used to talk, and how long she missed him she could not begin to describe.

“Dad could like to know you Mason” Cassie inquired.

“Well, maybe…You know, trans universal adventures are not an easy deal, It took us a visit to a giant baby and a lot of cyclocks to find you.

“Don’t forget the fingerbeast and the siege” Aiden pointed.

“Hah! Wait to look how the things get out there, boy” The Doctor began to answer with tempting glances… Until he looked back at Cassie. She was not so young, she was not so afraid, and even she was not even weak at all, but the Doctor couldn’t put away of the lost children of Time War from his thought. Then the faces of everyone inside the TARDIS passed across his mind. How many times it was been occupied, and how many times he has been left alone? He had been alone so much time, but he knew why. With the rest of them he had no option. Mason was had to be returned to home, and could be used was linchpin when he has more information. Aiden and he had their timelines tangled together, so he had to keep him in check for protection. The spider girl, as a predatorily being, had her own battle abilities of her own, so she could be useful as a sidekick in such place as the Never Castle was,… But Cassie had the undeniable vibe of a first casuality. And the Doctor couldn’t allow another child to get lost in the fire of the Time War. No more.

“Then you’re gonna help us?” Cassie asked as she put back her glasses, waiting for the obvious and desired answer. But everyone around her, including Darlene herself, just limited to look each other with serious expressions. Even the Doctor, ending his scanning, put straight and joined the awkwardness. The old man exhaled a profuse whisper and put on knees in front of her again, taking her shoulder.

“Cass, look. I know who’s the responsible of the damage that’s being done in your universe. And that man… won’t hesitate in rip apart anyone of us if he see us. I come from a war, one from I face the most uncanny, apocalyptic and deadly beings you could never imagine…” The Doctor began to speak to her, as her smile began to disappear and being replaced with a despaired frowning. “The best is that we don’t put you in risk. I know where I can leave you, it’s a safe place…”

“NOO!!” She screamed him in the face, looking at everyone with infuriated deception. “I won’t just stay wherever you want I go waiting for a miracle!” She yelled at everyone, making hard fists of her hands.

“Cassie, listen him…” Darlene tried to reassure with her, but was suddenly interrupted by another yelling.

“NO!! every one of you! Listen to me!” She yelled, with her beings getting moisty and her breath taking speed.

“Cassie…” Darlene exclaimed, worrying about. Her own mind was divided between go along with them and find her own way to save the universe or wait Ford. Then she got aware, that Ford was doing with her exactly what The Doctor was thinking in do with Cassie.

“You… you told me that I had an important thing to do didn’t you? And the rest of you… I – I know you’re thinking that I’m just a child, that I can’t deal with it. But you know how old Dad and Mom where when they stood against a cosmic demon and helped to defeat him? Twelve! And that’s my age! And… They’re my parents… I… I must save them! They saved me…” Cassie shouted aloud, holding her arms as everyone of them looked at her. She sniffed, pretending to not feeling too hurt about the idea of be marooned as the grownups made the hard work, passing her arm over her eyes, still trying to look angrier than she was. Mason looked at her, and recognized it. The spirit of determination, the signature of Pines family. Maybe it was just a tantrum, but Cassie had got a point. And she looked just like her, in the precise moment she found her braveness. And that moment, every one of the presents had their duty. If such improbable crew was there, in that precise moment of whatever version of History they were now, it had to be for some reason.

“I was twelve too” Mason said, as everyone looked at her. “My universe had its own Weirdmaggedon. And I and Mabel were there, and we were twelve. And we helped to save everyone”

“Well, _my_ Mabel too” Aiden followed her, scratching his temple.

“Oh dumb girl. I’ve seen her standing fearless in front a vicious mole man…” Darlene appointed. “Our mission ends were we say it, sorry Ford” She appointed.

“Doctor…?” Aiden asked to him. “What do we do?” The Doctor Looked at them. Anyway, against The Could’ve Been King, anyone of them, neither himself, had too much chance, and he knew it. Maybe the little girl in front of him had enough warrior spirit to stand with them; maybe she had yet something to do. The Doctor walked towards the console, holding the silver lever between his old fingers.

“I’ve tracked the antron signature. The Never Castle is located in orbit with a variable star located 610 years light from here; it has an unusual peak of X radiation” The Doctor said, half smiling. Cassie’s temper quickly recovered, cleaning away her tears as her smile widened. “Mhmm, thinking better, do you want to make the honors child?” The Doctor asked Cassie, letting the lever go. She whispered aloud, trying to hold her enthusiasm.

“Ehm- Sure, why not?” Cassie answered. She walked to the console, and held the lever. “Is the only I have to do?” She asked. The Doctor nodded, and she pulled the lever with unsaid straightness. The TARDIS got noisy as the time rotor moved up and down slowly.

“Wait, what’s the deal with that star?” Aiden asked, still a little confused.

“It’s name is _Gamma Cassiopeia_” Cassie answered, looking at him, to look at the TARDIS console just after. “I’ve had a map of that star imprinted over my head my whole life…” She said, tearly amused.

“… And we must follow the map” The Doctor appointed.

The TARDIS roared over the grassy field as it slowly disappeared, leaving behind a square footprint and a vibe of braveness and utter stubbornness…


	28. A Little Bit of Tow...

The stolen car arrived at early morning, at the entrance of the town. Under normal circumstances, Dipper and Mabel would chattered the whole trip, about their summer plans, and the amazing of be there another year, the grunkles would do a checklist of their most memorable adventures and things Stan thought adequate for Soos to improve his management of Mystery Shack (Even when Soos and Melody weren’t so willing to evade taxes as Stan) and Aaron could retell his childhood memories to Ann (because she had never put a feet in Gravity Falls). But that weren’t normal circunstances, so none of them said a single word when they saw the green sign along the road. Aside the urging phonecall that Stan made to Soos a few hours ago, the last part of the trip was callous as much it was unconfortable.

Dipper and Mabel’s parents had a lot of things to process; if their children’s new life wasn’t enoughly hard, they had to handle the fact that they became subject to every sort of paranormal adventures every summer they had been there, and that such things indeed existed. The real world had too many new fearsome things to be known for them, if the menace of being fired from their jobs for suddenly disappear wasn’t enough.

The twins had their own issues to think about. Even if they were successful in this new adventure, undone whatever was being done to the universe meant that the History should most likely reset itself. So they had to make their emotional travel _again_, and confront their parents about _again_, and deal with the consequences _again_. And if that wasn’t enough hard, Cassie was in the middle of some uncertain end. She could ever exist again? What happened to her? Dipper hadn’t the enough courage to ask Mabel about how hard the things were to them in that timeline, and Mabel had not enough courage to talk about it. Something in her mind was different this time, something frightening.

The van came across the main street when Mabel finally found an excuse to break the disdainful silence, pointing with amusement to the statue of town.

“Look! Our commemorative statue!” She said to their parents. They immediately look at the window, and saw the dark, majestic statue that was where once was Nathaniel Norwest’s one. The Grunkles were holding a flagpost as the twins were stending in front with proud stances, just as they were five years ago, after the Weirdmageddon.

“Those… are you, kids!” Araron exclaimed, completely surprised.

“But why are you…?” Ann tried to ask.

“Well Pines parents, your children are heroes here! We saved this old town of the rage of an all-powerful demon at the end of their first summer here.” Stan replied with merry amusement.

“Weirdmageddon?” Aaron asked, looking at Mabel.

‘Yes… Yes! Dad you listened my stories!” Mabel replied, warmingly smiling at him.

“Yep, I did. I guess that will be my turn to tell your Mom about that…” He began to said, poking at her wife’s ribs softly with his elbow. But she was unresponsive, looking at the window. His playful actitude disappeared as soon as he saw her, and he concluded why. “Ann?”

“Ehm?… It’s ok, I’d be glad to hear it from them after” She replied quietly, looking at his husband. The twins looked each other, worried.

“Mom?…” Dipped asked her.

“Don’t worry kids, I’m just still… figuring all of this” She replied before go to another thing just after. “Oh well, who’s hungry? I’m starving” She asked to everyone.

“First we must go to shack Ann, we need some things to do before” Stan interrupted. “But there’s a nice restaurant near, if you want to know”

“I’ll check for it then” She said.

After a few minutes, the van finally reached the shack, and, as the grunkles hoped, several police cars were parked there.

“It’s the first time in my whole life I’m glad to see police cars” Stan said, trying to sound ironic.

“Stanleyyy” Ford inquired, unamused.

“Why, I just tell” He said as he parked.

The Pines family descended, and the first thing they saw was Soos walking at fast speed at the grunkles, hugging Stan tightly. Mabel and Dipper laugh briefly, as their parents just looked slightly disturbed how the chubby man in formal attires was squishing Stan.

“Mr. Pines! I’m so happy to see ya” Soos replied, with Stan trying to wave his hand in a friendly gesture, but his arms were wrapped between Soos’s, so no one could see it.

“Hey! Take it easy Soos, I’m still needing my spine” Stan replied friendly, as Soos let him go and Stan returned the greetin shaking hands with it. “Nice to see ya Soos, now I want to see my baby homage” Stan said.

“Melody is inside with him, she’s waiting for us with the rest of town…” Soos began to said, when he said the twins. So he proceeded to hugging both at the same time, as he used to do every summer.

“Dipper, Mabel! How are ya my Mystery Twins? Soos said, as he let them down to rub Dipper’s uncapped head and stretch Mabel’s shoulders. They looked at Soos happily, glad to see another friendly face in the middle of such difficult circumstances. But then they looked each other, for a single fraction of second, but was enough to punch their stomachs. How were they gonna explain their relationship to Soos?

“We have a loot of things to tell but alas we have another weirdmageddonistic adventure to deal first, what if we deal with it first?” Mabel quickly said, waving g her hands.

“True, the issue first. What’s up Mr. and Mrs. Pines?” Soos said, quickly waving at them.

“Nice to meet you Soos, Dipper and Mabel had told us a lot about you” Aaron replied, extending his hand to him.

“Yep, I’m the handyman of Apocalypse, you can trust in me. Please, come in, Melody prepared corn dogs” Soos told them, extending a hand so they could pass…

Sheriff Blubs, McGucket, Major Cutebiker, Soos and the Grunkles were sit in the long family table of the main room, with a lot of papers and planes avobe, discussing what was going on, with everyone else in the couches, or walking in circles near them. Abuelita was serving corn dogs to everyone in the shack, semmingly ignorant (Or at least, incredibly relaxed) about the situation, as everyone in table were discussing the defense plans.

“… So, we’ll put blockages in all the entrances to the town, and will establish a cordoning around the main entrances to forest” Sheriff Blubs kept saying, as he pointed the most vulnerable points around the town.

“I made a robomackigjal alterationisms in the building vehicles so we can use to smash the unknown menaces. That can give us time when they appear” McGucket proceeded, showing the planes of the modifications, as he scratched his beard in an intellectual pose.

“Perfect Fiddleford. Now, the only we can do for now is wait to night. Meanwhile, everyone take their positions, I fear we’ll fight a hard adversary”

“This is dumb if you asking me. Why beings that can reshape time at will are going to fight a little town as this” Pacifica pointed, with her arms crossed and a disdained expression.

“I know their modus operandi. First they intercept the transgression; if they can’t control it they erase the timeline, is because that that we haven’t seen a single shift in so much time; they searching for us. This is the only chance we have” Ford interrupted.

“Don’t worry Mr. Ford; we’ll defend town until the end” Wendy inquired, holding her axe with determination.

“Good. Now as the plan was seated, everyone to their positions” Major Cutebiker said, holding his bandolier with a proud stance. Instantly, everyone in there got out the room coordinately, with Manly Dan punching a wall as he shouted “Lets save the TOWWN!!”. The twins’ parents, who had remained silent without even pick a corn dog, just looked with precarious amusement how the shack got empty, as the grunkles and the twins waved of their respective friends. They looked each other, figuring how important were they children to move an entire town to aid them with just asking. They had lost a lot of their lives, and they felt it unbearable. Suddenly, The squealing voice of their daughter broke down their mutual though bubble.

“So, you still hungry?” Mabel told them.

“Yes. Don’t take me bad Melody, I don’t like corn dogs” Ann replied, looking at Melody, with her baby in arms.

“Don’t worry Mrs. Pines, we prepared more food” Melody replied with calm tone.

“Yeah, you must prove the majestic foods my sweet-apple wife can do” Soos said, holding Melody in her shoulders.

“Oh Soos, stop, Abuelita taught me almost everything” Melody replied merrily, as they shared a brief but warm kiss.

“Majestiiic” Soos replied playfully.

A few minutes later, the two families were eating in a dense but calmed atmosphere. With their son already sleeping, Soos and Melody disposed to prepare the table as the twins helped in serve the food, as the grunkles and the twins’ parents stood on the table, watching the rhythmic animation.

“This is always like that?” Ann asked Stan.

“Weeell, we’ve not here all the summers, but yes. Here the kids have practically a second home I you’re worried about what will happen after…” Stan began to reply, just to receive a painful elbow punch from Ford. “Heeey Sixer! What’s wrong with you?”

“Stanley, it’s not the moment. After all, when we solve this, they won’t even remember nothing of this, neither us” Ford answered.

“So you’re so sure eh? Stan asked defiantly. Ford got out of words in that moment, as a tiny but visible tear ran through his left cheek, to just after feign that something entered in his eye.

“Sorry, I got something in the eye, I had to go to restroom” Ford said, to walk towards the nearby door.

“Pff, my weird brother. Don’t worry Ann, you and Aaron will do fine, I mean, we’re here now” Stan said, looking at Aaron and Ann with a dismissive smile as the twins and Melody came with the food…

Ford was looking himself at mirror, troubled by the question his brother did a few minutes ago. How that was going to end, it was the greatest of the questions. He was sure in a 90% how the things went in the original timeline, but about the specific situation, he had no idea. They were in Norway in that time and he could recall that the Shifts began shortly before they could go back, but he could remember the conclusions of the other shifts, and very very few of them had promising answers. The worst ones involved things he felt so much pain to ever think about, and were precisely that ones in which he was thinking about. He had learned to hold the weight of see the lives of Dipper and Mabel be ruined again and again and again with the joy of see a lesser but important quantity of them had happy conclusions. But resolve the cataclysmic problem implied that there was going to be an only future, an only chance to do things right, and he was sure that he wasn’t going to remember anything, and that Jesselbraum was not going to help him, because she couldn’t interfere beyond her duty to help him.

_I must not lose my nerve. Please, don’t let me lose my nerve._

Ford whispered aloud, clapped his cheeks a few times and got out the restroom. For now, he had a dinner to attend…

\- _Before the Shifts…_

_“… Are you sure that I can help them?” The young man said. His hopes were on the verge of the insanity, and he felt with no other option._

_“What happened to them is not what was meant to be, Their destiny was troubled by an unknown force that seeks the same as me. Help me to unlock it, and I save their destinies” The voice in the darkness, extending his hand out of the shadows. The young man of curly brown hair looked at it with doubt, fearful of accept the tricks of a demon just as his predecessors._

_“Why you want to help me if I am a mistake in History? What is my life worth for?” He replied, giving a step backwards. “Many bad things happen to everyone, why to help them?”_

_“Even if you’re an anomaly, you’re a life, a soul, and that makes you worth of it. I can show you things greater than everything in this world; I can give you whatever you want to protect them. Their destiny is linked with this civilization, and they NEED to go forward. I’ve seen too many worlds burn; I want to save one, just for once. And YOU can help me to save your world and mine”. The young man got his wallet out of his pocket, and opened it, to see their photo. He loved them so much, and he was willing to do whatever he could to save them, no matter the cost, no matter his destiny. His heart was always out there, and he really didn’t care much about, so he could… he should resist._

_“What do you need?” The young man asked._

_“Your timeline. It’s the only I need to access theirs. But you must renounce to it. It will be as if you’d never existed” The voice in darkness said to him._

_“So I will die?” The young man replied, tearful._

_“No. I will turn you into a Neverwere, so you’ll can live out of your life. And, if the chance occurs, I’ll bring you back to your History. I promise” The voice in darkness told him, with a compassionate tone distinguishable in his deep, monstrous voice. The young man looked at the clawed hand, as he began to breathe hard._

_“I accept” The young man said, taking the clawed hand._


	29. Rescue Mission

\- Universe Portal Hall; Gravity Falls, Oregon. Universe 47’\

“Nuclear Fuel Tank: Check” Candy said, behind the glass screen, checking for the levers of the huge machinery.

“Quantum Stabee…Besttt…Stabil… That thing. Check” Stan said, unceremoniously, looking behind the glass screen. “Are you sure you don’t want I come with you, Sixer?”

“Completely sure Stanley. You and Candy are the only two persons on the planet besides me and the girls who knows how to use the portal. I something happens, whatever, shut it down” Ford said, looking behind his back, with his quantum pistol on one hand and the stretching cable in his belt.

“Don’t worry Mr. Pines, we’ll hold on as much as we can” Grenda said, punching the console in the process. Candy made her a judgmental glance, and Grenda smiled nervously. “Hehe, sorry, it’s the emotion”.

Then Mabel entered thru the doors, armed with her wrapping hook in one hand and her own stretching cable on her hip, wrapped around her blue sweater with the image of the Universe Portal in its center. Her friends ran to hug her, and she returned the embrancing.

“Take care Mabel, I you find it, give Chtulhu my phone number” Candy said to her. If she was joking or is she was speaking seriously was hard to say, but Mabel took it with kindness anyway.

“Good luck Mabes, we’ll wait for you” Grenda yelled, lifting both girls from ground.

“I’ll be back soon friends” Mabel said as Grenda put them back in floor.

“Mabel, its time” Ford said to her. Mabel shook her sweater and whispered aloud, giving a pair of little jumps over the floor and shaking her arms.

“Ok Grunkle Ford, let’s do this” Mabel said, walking towards him. A thousand of things were crossing her mind, things about the unknown horrors they could fight or how long they should be there, but she was sure that se couldn’t come back without her. She was to find her, no matter how far they should go or how long they could be searching.

She put on feet along Ford, and looked at him.

“Ready?” Ford told her, extending his hand to hers.

“Ready!” Mabel yelled enthusiastically, looking at the shiny massive circle in front of them as she held his hand firmly. “We’re coming for you May-May!”

“Good. Stanley! Extend the inferential gravity field” Ford yelled.

“Oh right, let’s do this.” Stan said, as he pulled a little lever upwards. “Good luck Ford, tell her I said ‘hi”.

Mabel and Ford floated over the ground as the shining circle widened, engulfing them…


	30. The Beast in the Lake

The lake was silent and misty, feebly illuminated by the spotlights of the multiple police cars surrounding the entrances of the lake. Dipper looked at his clock; it was 9:00PM, close to the right hour. He looked at Mabel, who was at his left, with a nervous smile. They were over the edge of the dock, the most visible place from which they could be seen when the creature, that according to Dipper, could appear.

“Ready?” He asked. She looked at the quiet waters of the lake, unsure of what to say. They weren’t alone with this anymore, but something was telling her that it just wasn’t enough, that something was missing from everyone’s attention. But maybe she was being in turn being paranoid. “Ehmm… Mabes?” Dipper replied, noting she was delaying too much in answer.

“Yeah? Oh, I- , Sorry, I’m doing the same as Mom. I… think if… What if we’re missing from something? What if this doesn’t works? Being eaten by another cosmic horror isn’t what I expected of this travel anyway” Mabel told him.

“Well I really hope this works. Besides, we can still run” Dipper replied proudly. Mabel looked at him with fake disdain and moved his face with her fist feigning a punch.

“Oh you dorky-porky” She said to him.

“Trust in your dorky-porky a little, we’ll do fine” Dipper replied, smiling at her. She put her head over his shoulder, and whispered.

“I- I don’t know Dipstick. What about Leigh?” She asked.

“Mabes, look… She won’t say anything I…”

“It’s not about that. I mean… We were friends. Very good friends. And I know that when we resolve this no one will remember anything but… I just thing in how we’re gonna pass all of this again. All the people who won’t understand, Mom and Dad… I don’t know if I’m the enough strong” She said, lifting her head and looking at him.

“I’ll be with you. No matter what” Dipper said, turning to face her, rubbing her arms.

“You don’t remember all the times it went wrong Dip” She said, looking at the lake. He embraced her at the moment, kissing her forehead as their glances found, feeling how she breathed in his breast.

“Well, we’re here, now. With them. And the Grunkles! Can you believe that?” He exclaimed merrily. “If we can have this happy ending after that bunch of bad endings that means something don’t believe you?” He said, looking thru her eyes.

“Ugh, when did you become so optimistic?” She asked with faked disgust.

“I learned from the best” He said, as their eyelids descended and they lips met for a long time frame. Then, still embranced, looked away at the quiet waters of the lake, breathing deep.

“I reaaaaally don’t want this happy ending to end in the jaws of that thing” Mabel said, as both laughed in response.

From the distance, recharged over a police car, their parents were looking at them. Aaron was imagining what their children were saying judging for their movements, as Ann was making a full checklist of who could they respond the next time they should pass through this if they could remember it. Mabel had told her many of the twisted and sad ways in which they reacted in her alternate memories, and that left her thinking about a long time. She wanted to be prepared, but had no idea of how could she be prepared for such thing. Aaron looked at her, for a moment recognizing the same thinking face that Dipper used to have, and smiled with nostalgic aims.

“It’s not an easy task I fear” He said to her. Suddenly she looked at him, with a disbelieving face”

“Orghh!.. You… How can you know?” She asked with serene disdain.

“Well we have like twenty years married Ann, it gets easy to recognize…”

“It’s not about that” She interrupted him. He frowned in worried curiosity, trying to figure what she was thinking.

“So what’s it?” He said. She whispered aloud, folding her arms.

“It’s just that. When I talked with Mabel she told me about… how we messed it wo many times that I… I really really want to figure how to be prepared the… next time? Oh God! Listen to me! Talking with my husband over a car in middle of a haunted town about how we’ll accept the incestuous relationship of our own children that we’re helping to do this sort of mad crusade to save the universe! And it seems that the fact that surely we’re going to jail for help to steal a car and surely be fired from our jobs for disappear with no warning doesn’t matter at all because for some magical reason we’re going to reboot the universe… Oh Godness!! Can you listen me? Can I listen myself?! I’m insane I’m insane I’m insane! I will never pull this off!!!…” She spiraled in her own version of an overthinking crash, when out of nothing her husband’s arms were around her, squishing her arms against her chest. Suddenly all her despair and confusion fade away, as her shoulders relaxed and her heartbeat slowed so quickly that she could sworn that she just suffered an ironic heart attack. She had already learned something new about herself, just when the things had gotten even less sense than before. But she was feeling… good. Aaron must have detected her change of aims, because she felt his face smile over her head. “Wow… how did you that?”

“You and Dipper are very alike. It looks like my husband magic had worked at least for once” Aaron said, being tainted too with her wife’s new aims.

“I guess it did. This feels…” She began to say, when she stopped to experience a little of this new level of confortability. Her eyes shut, as his husband’s did, as she aimed to finish her sentence. “… good”. So both began to breath deep, infused with this relieving experience in middle of all the madness to which their children had pushed them. Aaron deepened his breathing, and Ann noticed it very quickly. “Hey, I really hope you don’t begin to snore above me, I warn you” She said playful.

“No, it’s not that. I was remembering the day which we faced Grandpa Fillbrick about our marriage…”

\- _Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey. 1997_

_“… so, if you’re going to keep with that, I’ll going to keep with this” Grandpa Fillbrick said with serious anger to Aaron, who was holding tightly Ann’s hand. Is menace was simple: he had to get rid of her, or he was going to be exiled from family. Aaron looked at everyone on the hall, not finding support in anyone, even his own father. His despair grew strong, as he felt every more cornered, so Ann too,_

_No one could’ve said that what began as a family dinner could’ve ended in such way. Everything started a few days ago, when Aaron announced he had a special new to the family, so even Uncle Stan had traveled from Oregon to be witness of the great new. But the family dinner turned in disaster when Aaron said it. He was going to marry with a non Jewish woman, and Grandpa Fillbrick was not going to allow it. So they were there, cornered by his grandfather and his own father, forcing him to renounce to his love. His lips trembled, as he looked at Fillbrick with unsaid rage, as he took his choice. “Well, if is that what you believe, fine! I don’t need you! I don’t need anyone!._

_But out of warning, Uncle Stan stood between the two, facing Aaron, as he took his shoulder and looked at him with a supportive smile._

_“Chill out kiddo, I’ll fix this” Uncle Stan said, to just after face his father, with stern anger. “Those words he said, are the exact words Stanley said when you dumped out of the house, more than twenty years ago” He said, looking him at the eyes with a new found sort of braveness, something that was incubated in his heart since a long time ago. All the anger and stubbornness of his father’s face melted away in the moment he heard the words._

_“Stanford, those were very…” He tried to say, just to be interrupted for his son._

_“… different? You’re gonna cast Aaron out from family just for something which you’ve not given the chance to hear. That’s the same thing you did with him, and you know how it ended” Stan said with determination._

_“Stanford?…” Her mother tried to say, but being unable to push more words out of her. Even Shermy looked at him with unsteadiness, without say a single word._

_“ I lost my brother Dad. I don’t want to lose no one else” Stan finished, feeling how his eyes gotten moisty. And Fillbrick Pines, the man with no will to feel himself impressed, was gotten out of words. Overwhelmed for what he said, he walked away, to the old couch in front the TV, and sat slowly just in the same spot where he saw his son a long time ago, the last time he saw him. He got off his glasses, and began to rub hos eyes with his fingers, as her wife approached to him and embraced him from behind the couch. Aaron felt a sudden pressure coming from his near hand, and turned to see his father smiling him with an apologetic glance._

_“I’s fine. You win. I’ll accept her in our family” Grandpa Fillbrick said with shakily voice. Shermy let go Aaron’s hand, so he and Ann ran straight to Stan and hugged him tightly…_

_“Thank you Uncle Stan” Aaron said, not holding his urges to cry._

_“Don’t give me thanks yet kiddo, let’s see how it works…”_

“Yeah, how to forget that day, was pretty emotional” Ann said, feeling a little embarrassed about.

“Yep, and we did it great, don’t you think? Look at our children, they’re doing it fantastic even with their… _thing_. When I talked to Dipper I thought in that day, and God, it feels bad to be the troublemaker. Maybe they will do it great too” Aaron said, widening his smile. Ann frowned with the guilt of all the alternate scenarios in which they messed up, and sighed.

“Dipper… told you about Cassie?” Ann asked.

“Yes. He did it.” Aaron replied, squeezing her tightly.

“How do you think she’s doing it? She’s out there, waiting for all of this to get fixed. If we fix it she’ll eventually born, and I don’t want to mess it again”

“Well we’re here now. Of all the bad futures. I think that means something” Aaron replied.

“Ohh God, we’re going to hell if we fix the universe. How hypocrite” She said with faked disdain.

“I bet it will be funny…”

Suddenly, the huge police lamps pointed at a far corner of the lake in front of a little island. The waters began to bubble intensely as it were boiling, and a tremor-like sound echoed above the entire lake, announcing the coming of the awaited beast.

“It is coming” Dipper said, holding Mabel’s hand, as they saw how the little island trembled and lifted from waters, and every bird upon their trees flew away as fast as their wings allowed them. Two huge, inflated and diverted eyes sprouted out of water, as the dirty mass arose from the lake. A huge, rubbed nose began to sprout misty breaths, followed by an immense mouth with two sets of gigantic white teeth, who was shouting nonsensical gibberish with an hideous, humid voice. The floating monstrosity floated towards the dock, as the twins looked each other and adjusted the tiny earphones they had to translate what the beast meant to say, sighing deeply.

“6-1-8 EGA WEN EHT! 8-1-6 SNIGEB EGA WEN A!!!”

“Ready” Mabel said with a nervous smile, and Dipper nodded, equally nervous. Then they looked at the beast, who ceased his gibberish and approached silently until the drops of water that were still falling from its dirty body touched the edge of the dock, and the beast’s eyes moved to center its sight to the twins with horrid slowness. The twins squeezed their handholding, ready to receive whatever the beast could do. It looked at them without say a word, breathing with intensity. Then, the monster spoke.

“EMOC OT GNOL OS KOOT UOY DID YHW?!” The beast yelled, dropping mud and little pieces of algae around everywhere. Dipper and Mabel opened their eyes wide, infused by the terror what such collosal beast was meant to suppose.

“Hi! There,… ehmm we sorry. It took… - A while to figure what did you wanted” Mabel said, trying with all her will to resist the urges of look at the human skeleton that was tangled between the roots of the beast.

“NYAAAARGH! SIHT ODNU OT EMIT ON EVAH UOY! ETAL OOT S’TI!!!!” The beast yelled aloud, shaking violently, hitting the dock and making the twins to walk several steps behind. One of its gigantic teeth fell from its mouth, and hit the edge of the docks, ripping it apart to the depths of the lake. Mabel and Dipper looked back at his face, containing their terror.

“We know! We know! But we don’t give up, and you can still help us. What where you meant to give us anyway?” Dipper asked. Even without eyebrows or something resembling it, it was obvious that the beast was angry. The gibberish it said next was too confuse even to the translator, and more and more kinds of debris fell from its mouth to the waters. Car’s tires, bones of various sea beasts, and even rocks and pieces of boats, fell in every direction, into the waters and over the beach, until something metallic hit the remaining of the dock, just in front of the twins.

“KCAB EMOC LLIW SEILIMAF RUO DNA!!! EMIT EHT TILPS NAC OHW SENO EHT ECAF DNA ELTSAC REVEN EHT OT THGIARTS PAM EHT WOLLOF!! NYAAARGH!!!” The beast shouted aloud as it floated back to where it was and sank on the waters of the lake, ending its manifestation with the bubbling of the grayish waters. Dipper and Mabel looked to the metallic piece; a very familiar metallic piece.

“It is from…?” Mabel asked.

“It is from the flying saucer” Dipper replied


	31. Hunt

The rope ladder extended itself to the unsoarable and creepy depths of the hole beneath the rock, much as it was more than 30 years ago. McGucket, in a joyful aim, turned on and launched from his old reliable sack, many glow sticks, right into the hole. The twins, their parents and Stan, looked at him and Ford as they ended to prepare the site for the fall, exchanging scientific jokes and merry memories of their old times, when they came bellow that hole for first time.

“Did you two nerds finished? We’re out of time” Stan replied with disdain. He was not sure what kind of jealousy he was feeling right now, but he made his best efforts to not think in their romantic inclinations of his alternate self, for the sake of his actual sanity. Ford and McGucket put on feet. Shaking their pants, as looked at the team with optimistic aims.

“Done. Who wants to come first?” Ford replied. After a quick exchange of glances of between everyone, Mabel spoke first.

“Me! It will be the first time I get in, bring it on!” She replied with brave joyfulness. Her parents looked at her with quiet consternation, as Dipper raised his eyebrow.

“Sure?” He asked.

“Oh, come on bro-bro, you already were there, it’s turn of the alpha twin…” She began to speak, pointing at her breast with her thumb. Their parents looked each other as saw how Mabel began to descend, followed by Dipper, as both looked at Ford with accusative glances.

“So, did you brang our son to the insidds of a crashed spaceship too? Oh my goodness” Aaron replied, for n-sim time this night. Ford raised his arms in a resigned expression.

“We’ll have a lot of time to discuss this after, now get in kiddo” Stan replied, pointing at the hole.

“Why not? After know that the fact that someone’s manipulating the entire structure of reality, why a spaceship should be stranger” Ann muttered to herself as she followed his husband in his descent.

The night had infused the insides of the spaceship with and special type of creepiness, ripped apart in the little spots where the glow sticks had landed, marking the way to the main room. There were not birds awake flying at that time of night, so the only sound they could hear was their own breaths and the crackling sounds of an unsaid amount of little creatures that touched the metallic walls; maybe insects, or some of the species of odd breast from above that as the birds found its way to the insides of the spacecraft.

“_Holy-canolly _Dipper! So this is where you and Grunkle Ford where sneaking around that day? This is one of the most awesome places in which we’ve beeeeeen…!” She shouted at the depths of the spaceship, making echoes across the entire place. A few flapping sounds were heard from distance, as a remembering that they weren’t alone inside. “Ups, sorry”.

“No prob Mabes, I still remember when I was here the first time. I couldn’t stop to look around all this place” Dipper replied merrily, recalling his memories of that day, the day he proved his braveness.

“Weeeeell, at least if I can’t see the whole place in middle of this darkness at least I have a good angle of that butt of yours” Mabel said, winking at him, making him to blush briefly in response.

“Hey kids, but seriously, let’s try to not make so much noise in here, I’d prefer to not awake nothing too… _theethy_ here” Ann said from above them.

“Don’t worry Ann, there are not incursions of bigger creatures here inside. Even the mole people had given up their attempts to enter here” Ford said from above her.

“Ugh, those creepy freaks, don’t make me remember them Grunkle Ford” Mabel replied with a little of remorse.

“I don’t remember the mole people” Dipper inquired. Mabel kept silent for a while, not aware how terrible those years of imprisonment were to her until the moment she recalled them entirely in her mind. “Mabel?”

“Ehm? Yep. Nothing worth to talk about Dips.” She responded, forcing her usual quirkness to cover her remorse.

“Yeeeahh, there are just a bunch of butcherous googlifreaksome slashers Dipper” McGucket said, with a glow stick between his teeth. He took it with a free hand and launched it to the darkness. “Here goes the last one folks!” He shouted with enthusiasm.

“25 yards more, team” Ford said, looking where the glow stick hit the floor of the ship.

“25? We’re not gymnasts Ford! Why didn’t you made, I don’t know, a kind of magic elevator?”

“Because Fiddleford needed it for one of our defensive machines and certain blonde girl lost my magnetic guns in a bet with a cyclops” Ford replied, looking at the twins.

“Heheh! That was a funny day, we had to recover Dipper’s face again and the magnetic guns were the only stuff she seemed to want” Mabel recalled with fondness.

“Yeahm I remember that story honey. How did you recovered his face after your friend Pacifica lost?” Aaron asked.

“Oh, it was easy. The cyclops wanted a kiss. Luckily she was a teen cyclops, otherwise that could’ve been weird Mabel replied.

“So that explains why she mentioned the girl cyclops on the reunion… Oh mine” Ann replied, adding that to her list of weird facts about the town.

The chatter prolonged itself until Mabel reached the floor, so everyone helped to put on feet. Then, one by one, turned on the lamps they had and followed Ford and Fiddleford across the vast tunnels which extended itselves until where the lamps could not bright them. The air smelled like a mixture of moss and rust, and every step they made echoed across every corner. Aaron and Ann didn’t hold the curiosity of point at the four-limbed skeletons with space helmets and the inscriptions carved on the walls. Some features about them seemed in a way nostalgic, with some skeletons embraced one each other, and the discernible typographies between an inscription and the other. Suddenly they had a new understanding of the weirdness in world, akin to the one which their children had. Those beings were once persons who had a job to do and a life to which return.

“How much has the spaceship here?” Ann asked, seeing at the inscriptions as they walked.

“Thirty million years, approx. The ship’s crash created the valley, but something else was here before. Something attracted them to Gravity Falls. The last time I and Fiddleford were here we decoded some of the messages in the walls. The aliens were on a mission of zoological investigation, and the huge quantity of creatures in the forest attracted them when they were investigating Earth. But something hit their ship, and It crashed above the place they wanted to investigate” Ford recalled, as they reached the place they wanted. Crossing the huge round entrance, they found a control room. Large as an stadium, and half covered with consoles of all sizes and shapes, such majestic place exceeded in magnificence anything that anyone of them could say about. Old, rusty and forgotten, but after all beautiful.

“We arrived. The main hall of the ship” Ford said as he entered, and everyone followed him.

“Look Ford! The Testament we decoded the past summer!” Fiddleford yelled joyful, as he pointed at the huge wall, carved with what looked like the longest of the last wills ever wrotten in the universe.

“Woooooah. What it says?” Mabel asked, pointing at the carving as well. Fiddleford smiled with nostalgia, and looked at Ford, who was already unplugging cables with Dipper. He nooded, and Fiddleford began to read.

_Cycle 872, hour 17._

_Our mission had failed terribly. The shame we all feel here it’s so immense that we can barely feel relieved for the fact we’ll never come back home. Whatever crashed against the main hull ripped off out coordinater circuit, and had fallen out of our reach in some place of the disaster zone, so we won’t be able to reprogram the scape pods in any other way (Suck you Blart’d Bor! I told you to pack another one!). Our infraproyector had also fallen out of the ship, and is carving genetically-encripted messages in some local animals (Luckily they’re just advertising messages, so we won’t be breaking the Kardashev Code at least). Luckily, the ecosystem is recovering from the crash pretty quicker than we believed, but we still fear that some of the endemic species of this place in the planet had lost forever. Even worse, some of our specimens had escaped and are populating the zone, but local predators like entelodonts and creodonts, drawn to this zone due the crashland, are chasing them as much as the local endemic species, so we hope our invasive species won’t be able to cross the range of probabilistic magnetism. This place had so much to teach, so much we could learn, and we had foolishly maimed it. The atmospheric shield will soon fail, and we’re not able to breath in this atmosphere or any of their undecadimensional iterations, so that means we’re going to die in a few hours. I know now how it feels to be one of the ancient crash lands that appear in the news; we’re about to turn ourselves into one. Maybe that’s good, because who knows what our own civilization will pass on the future. So, if someone someday finds us, we were the children of Trilaxxz Beta, and we died with honor…_

“Wow. That was pretty more heartbreaking than I believed” Mabel said, rubbing her nap.

“Heh! You had to see how much Ford cried when we cracked the code!” McGucket recalled, looking at Mabel.

“Haha! Sixer I knew you were a drama queen after all” Stan laughed aloud.

“What?! No! I just… Something fell on my eye that day, there’s a lot of rust here inside…” Ford defended himself, getting red.

“It’s ok Grunkle Ford, that was really a sad story” Mabel said, rubbing one of her eyes. “Curse you Blart’d Bor!!!” She yelled at the ceiling with a fist in high. Everyone chuckled a little for the affirmation, as Dipper and Ford finished to program certain part of the console.

“Ready! It’s done” Ford proclaimed.

“Iiii’m stil not getting it” Aaron said, scratching his head.

“True. Dipper, make the honors” Ford said, still occupied in the laptop plugged at the cables of the console.

“Oh, right. Yes – erhm erhm – The metallic piece the island monster gave us was the coordinater circuit the aliens lost in their crash. If the monster’s right, the aliens picked up the signal of the place where the guys who’re making all of this are” He said, pointing at one of the many screens on the room.

“But there must be lots of directions in that thing, how we’ll pick the right one?” Mabel inquired.

“… because there’s only a remaining direction in this data bank. This one!” Ford shouted.

The screen turned on and flicked between lots of brief sets of symbols and blurry sounds, and two screens of the room exploted at time, one after the other. Finally the screen kept on, and showed a complete map of the universe, making zoom on the Milky Way, making zoom in one of its spiral arms, making zoom on the solar system, pointing straight to Earth. The continents looked a little different than they should be, but it was Earth anyway.

“Earth, as it was 30 million years ago” Dipper said, touching the screen.

“Well, it was an easy task” Aaron replied with an ironic smile.

“Not yet Aaron; the computer just determined our actual location. Here’s the actual route” Ford corrected him, pushing a few bottoms on the laptop. The continents of the imaged Earth moved right to its actual positions, and the screen un-zoomed to the galaxy and zoomed back to a familiar set of stars.

“Cassiopeia’s constellation?!” Mabel asked, feeling a little punch in her stomach. The screen zoomed at its center star, and finally zoomed at its solar system. There was the location, orbiting the star just in front of its first planet.

“There is it, the map to the place we’re going to” Ford exclaimed.

“Wait wait wait wait wait wait, hold on there, Ford. Are you saying we’re going there?!” Aaron asked, moving his arms in a denial expression. “How’s supposed we’re going there?”

“We can reprogram the scape pods to take us there. I and Fiddleford studied them, they have Temporal Displacement Hyperdrives, the same we used to make the portal”

“And that meaaans…?” Ann inquired, equally confused.

“We can make a trip of light years in a few seconds Mom” Dipper answered.

“Ok, so we got inside those… things wherever they’re and then what? We punch a few aliens in the face?” Aaron asked defiantly. Ford grunted as he scratched his cheek, uneasy, lifting himself from the floor.

“Aaron, I know this seems… improvised. A lot of improvised. Dang, I can recall it too, but we haven’t other chance. We don’t know how much time we have to prepare us and…”

The hall trembled intensely, lifting a little cloud of dust. Whispers and noisy roars began to fill bit by bit the air coming from the darkness. Officially, they were out of time.

“Everyone run! I’ll reprogram the scape pods!” McGucket yelled, running straight to the laptop.

“Fiddleford?” Ford replied, looking at him apologetically.

“Go!” Fiddleford yelled at them. Ford nodded with a trembled smile, and looked at the entrance.

“Ok, follow me, I know the way” Ford said.

The Pines family ran as fast as they could, disappearing in the darkness, as Fiddleford tackled against the buttons with mechanic hurry. The grunts and roaring neared every more, as his forehead sweated with nervousness; he had no idea what he had to wait. He was so close to reach the decoding…

_Got it!_

He felt a pair of eyes looking at him from the unforgiving darkness, as a blurry figure casted itself from the shadows. Greyish, nude except his long cape, supporting himself with the aid of a golden rod, the figure manifested itself. McGucket closed the laptop slowly, as the greyish young man walked slowly towards him, with an unchanging expression. Behind him, more blurred figures that snarled and grunted with animalistic aims manifested; despite being seemly humanoid, they walked in their fours like frogs. The young man kept walking slowly, very very slowly, hitting his crooked rod against the floor with every step he made, as their blurred minions became clearer.

“Oh- Godness…” McGucket tried to speak, at the sight of such beings. Five female beings with a skin covered with a short beige fur, walked over their clawed extremities, as the hundreds of mice they had over their heads instead of hair moved frantically.

“I salute you, Pair of Glasses, but I fear I must stop you” The young man spoke in a voice that Fiddleford immediately thought familiar….Until one of the animalistic women accompanying him jumped over him and looked him in the eyes. Fiddleford began to feel cold, very very cold, as that chillness privated him of the inability of move a single muscle and the pressure of her clawed hands over his skin pained horridly….

The Pines family ran with all their forces, until suddenly Ford stopped his run.

“Ford, what’s happening?” Stan asked, confused.

“Mabel, the glasses!” Ford shouted at her.

“Right! The glasses. Here” She said, getting them out of her bag. She gave a pair to Dipper, she wearied another… and then looked at the other two of them. “Grunkle Ford, We’re six people” she said, worried. Ford looked at the twins’ parents, and sighed.

“Give them the glasses” Ford said, as he opened his jacket and got off a laser pistol. “Aaron, Ann, the yours. Dipper, Mabel, the yours. Stan, the yours. Whoever reach first the docks… it doesn’t matter. Run”

‘Grunkle Ford, what’s it?” Dipper inquired, as the grunting sounds made themselves clearer. Grunkle Ford got off from his pocket a black plastic box and put it on his hands.

“Whoever reaches the docks first, connect this to the center hole of the scape pod. It’s our last chance” He said, as he took another laser pistol from his jacket and charged it. “Let’s go Stanley”

“Wha…? Grunkle Ford No!” Mabel yelled.

“Run!” Ford yelled, as quietly his brother followed him in his march to the darkness, and the remaining of the Pines family made a last glance at them and followed their rush…

“We’re going to die right?” Stan said.

“Even if we die here we’ll be alive in another timeline, I’m not worried” Ford said, as he pointed at the darkness with his lamp.

“Uhu! I’m amazed” Stan replied with irony. Then they saw him, the blurred young man, approaching from the darkness. Unexpectedly, he smiled at them, and for a moment the grunkles looked one each other in utter confusion.

“Well, If we’re going to die we have at least the right to know what do you want. So tell us” Ford said with defiance.

“Mhm. The Pines Grunkles. I’ve heard so much about you two, and I always wanted to meet you, and we’re here at last” The young man replied with a terribly familiar voice.

“Who are you?!” Stan said, pointing at his head.

“I’m sorry, neither me have time” The young man replied. Two blurry figures jumped over them with the speed of a punch….

“Aaaaaaaaaarghhh!!!!” They heard from the darkness, as they kept running, and the gruntings felt even closer than before. Aaron saw a big button over the wall, and stopped his running. Ann was the only who saw him at time to stop with him, as the twins ran several feet before see them.

“Aaron, don’t you think that….” She tried to reason with him.

“Do you want to pick a fight with me a last time my lady?” He answered her with that smile he only made in the extremis.

“Oh you dumb man…” She said, kissing him hardly as she personally pushed the button in the floor. Dipper and Mabel heard the noise of the metallic door closing itself too late, and stepped their march, running straight to the door.

“Mom! Daaaad!” Both yelled, punching the door frantically.

“It’s ok kids!, we’ll give you time. We trust you!” They yelled from behind the door.

“No! Open the door now!” Dipper yelled tearfully, as they heard how the grunts intensified.

“Dipper. It’s ok. We trust you. Now move those whimp legs and save the universe” Aaron said behind the door. The twins looked one each other a last time, nodding sadly.

We’ll fix this, I promise!” Mabel said. So the twins kept running, leaving them behind…

“Oh no, we’re a cliché now” Ann said, charging her weapon. “The biggest biggest cliché in history”

“You’re a beautiful cliché after all Dear” Aaron replied, pointing at the darkness. Then they saw him, and looked at his grayish, but still recognizable face, casting himself out of the shadows.

“Oh mine, I always knew this had something to do with the family. We’re good soap opera material after all” Aaron said to himself.

“You. And you. What bunch of hypocrites. However you made it good after all the times you didn’t. But I have no time for this…”

Dipper and Mabel heard the repeated sounds of laser shoots, followed by silence, followed by the sound of the heavy metal of the door being crushed by unaffordable powers. Dipper crossed the round entrance, they had reached the docks. Just as he remembered, the eye-shaped holes that leaded to the scape pods, as they saw them some years ago. He looked at his left, hoping to see Mabel, but she was not there. The he felt some intense glance, and turned around. Mabel was along the closure bottom, motionless. Behind her, a few feet behind, the greyish young man was looking at both. She was so terrified, and strangely the figure, casted out from the shadows, was looking at them with a mixture of rage, pity, and sadness. He was just looking at them just as his own father when he surrendered his own braveness. Then he saw Mabel again. And she nodded, her eyes moisty and trembled, and pressed the button.

“Nooooo!” Dipper yelled, making two steps behind. Then he turned around, and saw the entrances of the dock…

Mabel turned around, smiling with pride and saw the being who was hunting them. He was alone, strangely alone.

“Oh right, let’s do this grayish man” She said, pointing at him with her laser pistol.

“It could’ve a honor” The young man said, looking at her with a completely counterintuitive nostalgia. She shoot, and he held the laser ball with his bare hands, making it disappear.

“Mhmm, sultry boy” She said, and ran straight to him. He propelled in the air, winding around the place holding tightly his rod, when she threw herself over the floor and slipped over the mud, as the young man crashed against the wall.

“Aaaargh!” he yelled in pain, as Mabel recovered from floor, looking at him with a proud smile.

“Final round boy, just you and me” Mabel yelled with enthusiasm. The young man fell on feet over the floor. He had to be angry, he should be angry, but instead he looked… equally enthusiastic.

“Bring it on” He muttered, and ran towards her, slamming at the airs as she moved herself away from the rod’s path. She took something else between her hands, and pointed at the rounded ceiling.

“Game over” She yelled, shooting with her wrapping hook at some place between the tangling roots and jumping in the airs, wrapping the young man in middle air when he returned to slam her, giving several rounds around him before put her feet over the floor and pulling tightly of her side of the wrapping hook.

“AAAArghh!!!!” The young man yelled, engulfed by his own coat, as he tried to move his arms and legs to touch the rope, but she was too strong. She turned around, and saw the young man, tangling in middle air with no force to free himself.

“Weeeeeeelll my dear fellow, it looks like the Mabel has beaten some time-butts today…” She began to say proudly, when she saw his reaction. It was hard to say if he was crying or laughing, but he looked so happy about be where he was, and a utter wave of confusion short-circuited her mind. “Whaaaay are you…?” She tried to ask.

“You… You’re amazing, did you know? I can’t believe I almost forget it” He began to say. Her confusion level broke the scale, until a spotlight in her mind picked something close to the true. She had to meet him. Forcefully she had to meet him.

“Who are you?” She asked, almost losing the force in her arms.

“You and him, are the most awesome people that someone would ever meet. Never, ever forget that… Never” He was still talking as if he wasn’t listening her. He stood looking so happy, and she feared that he was just making tricks on her mind.

“Who are you?! Answer me!!” She yelled at him, holding tighter the rope.

“But you’re still forgetting something…” He kept talking, between his odd laugh-cries. “… Is that I didn’t came here alone”.

Mabel felt a furry hand holding her shoulder, and slowly turned around. Suddenly she got aware that she hadn’t her glasses anymore, when she saw the pair of blank, beastly eyes put in that face, and she felt cold, very very cold. Her limbs lost force, and she fell straight to the muddy floor, trembling continuously, trying with no success to move her body. The young man fell at the floor as well, but he put on feet just after, and walked towards her.

“I’m sorr…” He began to say, when they heard the sound of mechanisms turning themselves on, behind the metallic wall. “No!!”. The young man roared horrendously, and saw to Mabel’s eyes. Even if she couldn’t move her face, she was seemingly smiling on her insides. “What had you done?!” He shouted at her with a worried expression. Several of the furry females appeared from the darkness and teared down the walls, witnessing how the scape pod propelled itself to the space. His eyes got red intense, as he spoke aloud.

“Master! We must shift now! I feel a presence inside the scape pod!!”

_“Get out of there boy. You and your troops must retire”_

“Understood” The young man said. He, and every one of the beings who came with him ran straight to the darkness and disappeared. Mabel began to hear the crisping sound coming from the horizons. She closed her eyes slowly, knowing perfectly what was coming. The next time she could be prepared, the next time…

_“…Come now, Child. We ain’t got all day ya know… And yeah, now Mike’s pretty pissed, ugh, it’s so over the top. He might even cancel that party he was gonna have at his cousin’s empty apartment next Friday. Which, by the way, we were invited to… What? I can’t hug my favorite grandniece and grandnephew? What kind of world is this where I can’t do that? Besides, you two looked like you needed tha… “GLAD I COULD HELP!!… Oh great! We just finished finding a proper home for the last pig, now we’ve got another one?… I just read something that said people that look alike are attracted to each other, I thought it was kind of weird, but seeing you two together now…I guess there must have been some truth to that study… ”_

_Voices. Lots and lots of voices overlapping even over the glassy sound around everywhere else. Lots of voices of lots of people who she remembered she knew among the thousands of different lives she had. But now’s different. Now she knows from where those whispers are coming. She’s tired, really so tired of keep rebooting her life into a myriad of lifelong slices, so many, and so much painful. So many bad choices, and so many bad destinies. She’s tired, she’s completely tired. Who’s keeping playing with their lives and turning them into an endless supply of suffering? How keep building these unbearable bridges made of broken dreams?…_

_“Mabel… Mabel!!” She hears another voice. But this one isn’t just another memory, this one is real. Or at least, the most real a voice can be inside this interbetween. “Mabel it’s me!! Grunkle Ford! It’s Me!!”_

_“So tired… I’m so tired…” She whispers, unable to open her eyes. She feels soaked, she feels anesthetized…_

_“Mabel you must listen me ok? I know you’re tired but you must listen me…. Mabel… Mabel!!!” She hears the voice, and she listens for once…_

“Grunkle Ford!!!!”…


	32. The Heart of the King

\- _The Never Castle, Gamma Cassiopeia System, a few moments ago…_

_The immense machineries turned bright red, as the whole castle shook furiously, and sparks more akin to thunders sprouted from every direction. The Could’ve Been King ran straight thru the marbled corridor, followed by dozens of Meawhiles, when he reached the main hall. Behind the screens, the machineries sparked and smoked, and tiny versions of the cloister bell resounded around the castle._

_“No way!” He exclaimed, unvelieved…_

Across every world, across every void corner of the cold deepness of space, across every busy place, every wild hill, and every last resting place. The whole universe felt it, like a clock machinery getting stuck, like a sword ripping apart the skin of a massive beast, the long, deep tremor that for a few seconds covered everything. It was no very destructive, and it was not very noisy, but instantly made everyone to get in feet and run for their lives in every direction. Then, as the seconds passed away, the inhabitants of every world, and every corner of the bare outer space, stood still to put attention on what was going to happen next. A second, and nothing happened, and a unanimous sight of relief was exhaled by every pair of lungs in universe. Then the next second, and a million of galaxies disappeared out of nothing.

An immense crack opened in the space itself. Burning, shinning, and above all, frightful to the point of madness. Unholy waves of steam and delirious light poured as blood out from the rip, splashing the stars and their defenseless worlds. Then, as hell bent demons, the hideous cosmic beasts, thirsty for flesh and hungry for blood, flew, crept and walked in every corner, turning the minds of thousands of worlds in pulp and casting hell upon every piece of space that their blasphemous appendages touched. Their roars were impossibly heard across the vast emptiness of space, and the hearts of the rest of the sane worlds stopped in non-relatable despair. The ones which didn’t know what was happening believed that was the scheme of their local devils, and the ones who did know, immediately acknowledged that the vastness of out from their comfortable reality was filtrating into it. Anyway, none of them could do something to save themselves. 

\- _The Never Castle, Gamma Cassiopeia System_

_The Could’ve Been King stood still behind his desk, looking firmly at the illusion he was casting out of his black, clawed hand. There it was, covered in a dense mist, his lovely world, with its three holy moons orbiting in a peaceful rhythm. It was at the palm of his hand, and at the same time, at whole Creations of distance. He missed his slender brother so much, and missed his people even beyond than their words could describe._

_He remembered the happier days back into their youthful, whey the three brothers played in the unnerved gardens of the backyard of their marbled palace, jumping happily around the silvered singing flowers, and chanting old songs of forgotten tales in a merry single voice, as they danced with their hands jointed. He remembered to stare at the crazy skies every noon with his father, and the amazing, and twisted times that the and his brothers spent learning to control their vast power with their mother. Then his inner sadness grew, and he remembered the catastrophe, the demise of thousands, and the escape of his world. His brothers trusted him, they really did, but he did not complain with their decision to send his bulky brother too. After all, he was lost for centuries, waging an endless war._

_His mind ran straight to the painful memories of the Time War. The Time Lords, the Daleks, and their unholy conflict. He remembered the slaughter of Skull Moon, and the madness trail left by the Morlonthoa across seven systems. Then he remembered the first time he saw a Neverwere. Climbing for its maimed life, ignorant of its disgrace. He remembered how it suffered, and the happy days he spent with it in a solitary corner of all the madness. He remembered it to die peaceful in his arms, and how furious he was after. His mind echoed with the steps of the armies he recruited more and more people and beasts stolen from their lives, and the stampings of his vast power, creating the Never Castle out of dust and rotten clay._

_Then he proceeded to remember the battles, the massacres, the seas of blood under his feet and the feet of his armies. Rage, shame, more rage, and despair filled his sinking hearts, at the memory of every head he stripped off out of a body, every neck he snapped, every ship he crashed with his own hands. He was furious with Gallifrey, and for a moment he bowed for destroy the Time Lords for the sin of mess with the lives of billions. But then he saw him. In a distant battle, the brave man mounting a blue box, winning the fiercest battle with no a single weapon in his hands. He was not in his side, but was doing exactly what he thought correct. The Doctor, The Oncoming Storm, the only sane man. At that time, he had gotten an infinite admiration for him; he desired to know him, he desired to be his friend and ally and fight along him for the sake of that creation. But that man hatred him, and could never trust him. The Could’ve Been King wondered what he could be doing in the war at that time, what new, unforgiving battles he was fighting as he meddled with the time of other Creation much as he hatred to do it. Maybe he could be wondered why he made a Gallifrey in one of the splints, or when the king who burned worlds suddenly was interested in the life drama of two little humans._

_The Could’ve Been King interrupted his mind rail when he heard the sound of the doors knocking. He knew he was at the other side, and whispered. The illusion in his hand fade away, and his head lifted._

_“Pass” The Could’ve Been King exclaimed. The door opened, and the young man of greyish skin walked inside, giving short steps as he supported himself in his golden rod, trying to not make so much noise with it at every time he tackled it against the floor. The young man stopped in middle way, and the Could’ve Been King felt immediately the shameful expression of his face._

_“Did you called me, Master?” The young man asked, reverencing at him._

_“Yes, I did. Please, come closer, I need to talk with you” The Could’ve Been King answered with a soft tone. The young man panted heavily, and walked to his side, stopping at his left side, looking at the moisty mechanisms behind the screen._

_“Master, I just really…”_

_“You’re apologetic, like your father” The Could’ve Been King interrupted._

_“I… I promise I will do everything in my power to…” _

_“And you have nerve and are brave, like your mother” The Could’ve Been King interrupted again, turning to see him. The young man faced him too, fearful of what was going to happen._

_“Master…?” The young man asked._

_“You have been successful in every correction to every time that this had happened before; you’ve fought every insane god that the shifts had released every time, with no fail of wound. You have fought Bill Cipher itself with all his vast powers, and won, every single time, something that neither I could do. You’re one of the most powerful beings I’ve met… And the most strong willed” The Could’ve Been King said, putting a hand in his shoulder. “And yet, after all your battles, you failed in stop them. You surrendered to your own hubris and now the universe is broken.” The king proceeded, getting his hand apart._

_“I accept my destiny Master, I’ll bear the punishment you have in mind for me” The young man replied, bowing. The Could’ve Been King made something that he had never seen him to do before: chuckle. “…Master?”_

_“Do you really believe you’re just a servant in the great scheme of things? Maybe I stripped your life out of you, but I still seeing the scars of it on you” The Could’ve Been King replied. “You may be serving to me for a purpose, but you’re much more than what you do. You’re a brave, brave man who had always been the possessor of an unmeasurable power. Even before me, you were powerful. But you took the wrong path in so much things, and that path had left you with all sort of obsessions and fixations. When I bowed for your help I bowed for help you too. When this work is done this reality wills still needing a protector, and I’ve prepared you for such holy mission. But to defeat demons out there, you must defeat your own demons. I’ve been out there boy, and the most destructive force in this Reality is remorse. It will make you to do things and destroy without looking behind you”. The young man looked at his featureless face, holding his shame. “Look at me boy, look at my scars. The things I’ve seen, the things I’ve done, the things I’ve undone. And still, I’m trying to help your family. No being is worthless and no being is perfect. You’re not my servant” The Could’ve Been King replied, holding his shoulder again. “You’re my apprentice. And the lesson I’ll make you pass is the most important thing you’ll can learn from me”_

_“But… Master, the rip in the universe! We must resolve this first” The young man said, frowning in worry._

_“You know that as the Never Castle is on feet your universe can be repaired no matter what it happens.”_

_“But how we’ll do it if my father went out from the timestream? We must find him” The young man insisted. The Could’ve Been King made an illusion screen appear in air, showing him a map of the star system they were._

_“I’ve read the streams of destiny. Whatever this Creation needs to be saved, is coming straight to us”. A weak white point in the map was making its way to the Never Castle…_


	33. Gallifreyan Pines

“Grunkle Ford!!” Mabel yelled aloud, instinctively siting herself above the ground. Her mind whirled around the recent events, feeling vividly how her brain reconfigured itself to the new reality in which she was. Normally (at least the times she could now recall) she could just wake up with a slight impression and a funny feeling about the previous set of things that were different from a reality to the next, in the form of a dream-like memory that she could share with Dipper. But now she felt more like if her brain was a brick hammered to dust, and she was alone, frighteningly alone.

She passed a hand over her face, recalling everything. Her dad, the pursuit, the bandages, the spaceship, the mice gorgons, the…. The young man she had to meet. Her mind froze in the moment she remembered Dipper. A brief smile drew over her face when she remembered he escaped, but quickly vanished when she recalled too how bad this shift felt. Something was not like before, something was… wrong, and she was not sure if it was the unlocking of her previous selves’ memories, or if something else had happened. It was like a tremor in the air itself, like if the nothingness was screaming in pain.

And there, in the middle of her brain reset, she saw at her clothes. She was on a kind of scarlet robe, one of various layers. The tops of her hands were painted with confusing round symbols, which she read instantly, still in the feeling she had never seen that symbols before. But now that was not true, and her new memories ran back into the place in time she and Dipper painted them. In the hurry, she put her left hand inside a pocket she just remembered that was in her robe, and pulled out a soft blue ribbon.

“Oh no” She muttered for herself. Of all the twisted lives she remembered, that one was among the least preferred. It was not the most painful, but was the hardest to deal, for a lifespan serious reason. But she had to be sure. She put on feet, noticing the continuous deep bell drumming that was echoing around the darkened corridor in which she was. Then she ran, ran and kept running. Ran across the endless steel floor, and the cracked round walls around, feeling at the corner of her ears the constant breath of gigantic machineries out of sight. The passage seemed eternal, as her despair set place in her immediate thoughts.

_Come on come on! You can do this. Dipper’s alone out there, if you’re where you think you must find a…_

The corner of her eye caught the glimpse of a round thing aside her, and immediately stopped her ceaseless march. She looked at the round window, rounded by a silver frame, and put her hand on the glass. She frowned in disbelief, discovering where she was. She had a chance to join on the race to save the universe, but it was a hell of a chance.

“Orghh you gotta be kiddin’ me” She mustered sternly.

\- _Tower B, The Capitol, The Wild Endeavour. Planet Gallifrey, Constellation of Kasterborous, a few… hours ago?_

_Aiden quantum-locked the door with the termometallic translator, and not satisfied with that, shoot at the middle of the door with a staser. How angry his father could be with him for steal a weapon of the presidential guards he could not dare to begin to imagine. He sighed with exasperation, disbelieved about how he ended in such situation. He was doing this, he was really doing this. He looked back at the insides of the huge room, trying to find relief in what he was doing, but his freak out just got worse for a moment._

_“Oh mine, I’m really doing this” He said to himself. He sighed again, recovering his braveness from his memories, the memories of how much they helped him to overcome his fears, how they put all their efforts in getting him out of that damn barn in the middle of nowhere. He smiled, regaining his determination, got out the ribbon of his pocket, and looked at the twins. “Ok, you guys are ready? I’m planning to wait for my adulthood to regenerate for first time”. Mabel laughed pitchy as only she knew how do, enjoying the secrecy of the moment._

_“Come on Aiden-raven, no one will be punished today” She said, in front of her twin brother._

_“I really really hope that to be true” He replied. Then he walked towards them, until he was just a single step from putting between them. “Right, give me each one the hand in which you wrote the other’s name”. So they raised each one the hand with the other’s name written over the top, and Aiden reaped each end of the ribbon around each hand. Then he made the longest sigh he could remember, and looked at them._

_“…Aiden? Everything ok?” Dipper asked, unsure about his expression._

_“Yeah yeah is just… I’m the only witness. This is meant to be made with at least one witness per side. How we’ll do this?” Aiden said, scratching his head._

_“You can be the witness of both” Mabel replied, smiling tenderly at him._

_“Oooooh right, lets skip one rule more” Aiden said, resigned. “Oh right here we go. Mabel, your vows”_

_“Ffff… Here we go” She said, grinning nervously at Dipper. “I… I really didn’t though we were meant to end here, doing this, right now. I always believed that the best things in life come when you least expect i but the first I realized how I felt about you I… I didn’t take it so good. But I keep my belief, and I’m glad to have fallen in love for you” She said, breathing hard and wetting her eyes. She was afraid, more than ever, and at the same time she was happy more than ever too. They were giving a step that no one in the whole Time Lord history had done successfully before, so they had a chance of 50-50 that suddenly something apocalyptic was going to happen in any second. For the record, they heard that morning between the gossip chatter of their teachers that some strange astronomical disturbances were taking place at the edges of galaxy. But they already threw the coin at air, and were not going to stop to see in which side it could fall._

_“Dipper, your vows” Aiden said. But Dipper stood silent, and looked at the door. His face was getting strangely pale, as if he was feeling something to come._

_“No. No no no no no no…” He began to muster. From the distance, Mabel caught the sound of breaking glass continuously, approaching from every direction…_

Gallifrey, the capital of the Time Lord Empire, pinnacle of the civilization and progress, a headlight of hope, culture and safety across all the extended Spiral Politic… And also, a hell of place to live. One of the worsts, if Mabel’s memories were to be trust. It was a life of duty, in the middle of decades of teaching and mastering countless of fearsome disciplines, soaked in the arrogance of an elite of time-tampering politicians whose people had seen better times millions of years ago, and now was drowning in their own decadence. But anyways, it was their home, one of several she remembered now they had. And now that she had the wider view about the deal, she was beginning to suspect that something about this particular life was too well planned to be just an iteration of Earth as every other of her lives. Someone had imprinted another civilization over their life deliberately. Why? She had no enough clues yet. But now she had resources to find out for herself. She remembered the way she had to follow with warming nostalgia, because it was the one of the best days of that life she had. The day she, Dipper and Aiden got inside the TARDISes’ storehouse. They talked about the future, and all the wonderful things they could do and the mesmerizing places they could visit. A life they never had, or could have. She closed her eyes, reassuring herself that after all, this place, this world, and this entire life she had there, were not more than a place someone created. That was really a hard weight of a life to remember, a life she hoped to forget.

_You can fix this Mabel…_

A noisy spark, exploding just aside her head, got her back from her thoughts, and she looked back. Five scarlet soldiers, dressed with solid pieces covering their whole bodies, pointed at her with long guns she remembered clearly. For a moment she felt troubled; nothing of this fitted in how this shift was going. Nothing, until the soldier at the middle spoke.

“Mabel Pines, you’re under arrest for conspiring against the Web of Time, surrender now or your execution will be made effective immediately” The soldier said, pointing at her head. Mabel lifted her hands slowly, seeing how the soldiers got every more nervous with every single move she made. She was not good as Dipper in doing the math about situations, but this time she had enough pieces to make an equation. The plastic box Grunkle Ford gave to Dipper, the strange words the young man of grey skin said when she was paralyzed, how bad the change felt, and what the soldier said. Maybe was for her actual gallifreyan superfast brain, or maybe because it was a sort of habit of Grunkle Ford to set plans which tended to break something, but she reached the right conclusion really fast. Not only were they being centrally affected for the Shifts and being monitored for this. They were connected intimately to the very machinery of the Shifts itselves, and now that Dipper disconnected himself from the grid, the whole machinery was going down, and the remaining piece, she, surely had to be soaked in weird time energy in consequence.

“Oh boy” Mabel exclaimed…

The wall behind the soldiers blew up ardently and scandalous, launching the soldiers to the floor. Mabel felt the pressure of the explosive way against her body and closed her eyes, feeling little pieces of debris hitting her cheeks. She opened her eyes, and saw her grunkles in military scarlet attires, getting it thru the hole with victorious expressions. Should she be angry for the issue of the explosives? Maybe later, for now she was glad to see them safe.

“I really missed to make holes in the walls brother” Stan said triumphantly, resting a quantum riffle on his shoulder.

“Keep presuming Stanley, keep presuming” Ford replied, to next giving his attention to Mabel. “Are you ok?”. Mabel ran to them, stepping a few soldiers and pieces of cement in the way, and hugged them tightly.

“Nice entry grunkles, just make sure I won’t blow up along the wall the next time” She replied happily as she unbraced them. “Wait, how did you find me so quick?”

“Some backup plan’s maniac had a bunch of explosives stored in a magical big cylinder in this dumb building along a time detector” Stan replied, looking at his riffle “This reality is not so bad Ford, maybe we should consider to keep this for a-“

“Tender kisses Stanley, tender kisses” Ford interrupted him. Mabel put her hands over her mouth trying to hold her laugh as Stan looked him with darting eyes.

“I hate you” He muttered. “Oh right! What we do now dexter?”

“My TARDIS is not far from here we just have to get in and track Dipper’s signal right the place of intervention” Ford pointed enthusiastically. Suddenly, they heard a huge explosion coming from a nearby corner, and the chattering of dozens of soldiers and their weapons. “Damnit”

“Don’t worry grunkles, I know the way to an old TARDISes’ bay, follow me!” Mabel replied, and began to run. The grunkles looked each other for a moment, and ran in her direction…

\- _The Cloisters, The Capitol, The Wild Endeavour. Planet Gallifrey, Constellation of Kasterborous, 73 years ago…_

_The little Aiden ran across the creepy pillars littered with piles of glowing cables, enlightened by holes in the ceiling he could not see not matter where he was, trying to get away from the metallic, ghostly entities which were chasing him. He was lost, in the worst possible place of the vast city, the place that not even the Lord President himself could dare to cross, a place that could not allow him to escape. Now he knew he had to take the left door, and was repeating himself that over and over again, as he dodged the bunches of living optic fiber, with the hissings (more akin to agony screams) of the things that were chasing him._

_His head hit one of those stony pillars before his eyes could see it, and he fell right to the floor, concussed. The high pitched sounds going near him turned into diffuse echoes, as his blurred sight distinguished the surroundings getting darker and his bare hands felt the cold wetness of the dirty floor beneath him. He took seat slowly, as his sight became clearer, and took his forehead with his hand. His mind got clear at the instant he got aware he was surrounded by a myriad of rusty mockeries of the High Council robes, with all and the neck collars. He heard the stories about whose dared to get in and never got out, and he confirmed them when he glimpsed the mummified corpses tangled in endless cables, several meters behind him._

_“No… No!!” Aiden yelled, and put his hands over his eyes, crying. For sure he was about to die slow and painfully, tangled in living optic fiber for Eternity. He kept crying a long time, thinking in how much his parents were going to miss him, in how his friends were still waiting for him in wherever the right door ended, in how many things he could never do… When he became aware that he was not being covered in cables. He put his hands away from his eyes, and looked at the metallic entities. Their holographic faces flickered constantly, and still Aiden was feeling as if their eyes were looking at him. He put on feet, confused, and saw around him. He knew what the metallic things were, and he knew why were there, so he being alive was the oddest thing in the place. He came quickly into the right conclusion, and breathed deeply, regaining his temper._

_“What… what do you want from me?” the little Aiden asked. For a moment, no noise was heard besides his own breathing or the echoes of tiny drops of water falling in the stony floor. But then a deep voice cut the silence abruptly._

_“ADVICE” the voice echoed from every one of the robed robots. Aiden frowned in confusion, not waiting to make his next question._

_“Advice… from me?” Aiden asked. There was a second in which the machines stood still where they were. And the next, abruptly, three of then moved, making a pass for Aiden. A fourth machine was at a short distance of their “entrance”, looking right to him._

_“ADVICE” the deep voice repeated. Aiden caught what the voice was meant to say. He had to be cautious, but for now, he could consider himself to be very very lucky…_

The steps of Mabel and the grunkles splashed uncomfortable water drops with every time their shoes touched the humid floor of the Cloisters as they ran from the Cloister Wraiths.

“Mabel are you sure this is the way?!” Ford yelled at her, avoiding the living cables that sprouted from the pillars and were whipping against them continuously.

“Sure Grunkle Ford! Aiden teached me the way the last time we were here!” Mabel replied, covering her eyes from the blinding shoots of Stan’s weapon.

“Your disappeared friend?! Mabel we’re not even in Earth anymore!!” Stan yelled, as he stood for a moment to shot at the Cloister Wraiths which whispered furiously at them.

“He had been with us in many of my lives, and here too! We’re near!” Mabel replied again, looking across the pillars to find the round patch she was searching for “How can you remember it?!”

“Less talk and more running people!!” Stan shouted.

“It’s…. there! I found it!” Mabel replied, pointing at the circle over the ground, at a few steps from them.

“Well don pumpkin! Now…” Stan stopped his answer like he was frozen, and looked at his left leg. A blue cable was tangled around it. Ford and Mabel looked at him with pity expressions, so even when he didn’t remember very good where they were, he knew it was the end of the line for him. “Oh”

“No. no no no no!” Mabel yelled, putting her hands over her head. “We can- we can save you, we must cut…”

“It’s ok Mabel, when all this gets fixed we’ll be again where we must be, I’ll- Arghh!!”. The living wire began its way inside Stan’s flesh, drawing a trail of blood where it got in. “What is this Sixer?”

“Those are Matrix’s plugins. You’ll be assimilated, turned into a part of the hardware of the biggest computer in the universe”

“Ohh come on Ford! Say something nicely” Stan replied with merry irony, as more wires tangled his arms, penetrating into his skin. His hands turned into fists, as he tried to resist the agony screams that punched inside his chest to come out.

“But we… I – I don’t want to lose you again! You don’t have how many times I’ve lost you, how many I’ve lost everyone!” Mabel yelled. “Grunkle Ford?” She said to him. But Ford remained quiet, smiling at his brother.

“How… How I did it in this reality Ford?” Stan asked. “I hope Dad to be less angry and with a better moustache”

‘You were a General of the gallifreyan army, you helped to defeat many invasions and… he was so proud of you” Ford said softly.

That’s good to hear, see? It was not so hard to say something nicely! Hah!… Arghh!!!… Mabel, when you find Dipper tell him that I want to be the godfather… You know, I really fit in a tuxedo…” Stan said, feeling how the wires got inside his bones.

“He’s such a whimpy baby, imagine him to cry all over the place” Mabel replied, forcing a smile to comfort it, deviating her incoming tears. Stan chuckled briefly before to hold another scream, and breathed profusely.

“Now go and save the universe… Go!” Stan yelled, closing its eyes. Ford and Mabel looked at him one last time before to run away. Stan opened his eyes shortly after, seeing how their silhouettes fade away, and the ones of the Cloister Wraiths got clearer. “At least I can use my last moments to swear to a bunch of robots. You metallic son of a bit-…!!!

\- _Defective TARDISes’ Storage Bay, The Capitol, The Wild Endeavour. Planet Gallifrey, Constellation of Kasterborous, 73 years ago…_

_Lines after lines of huge, silver cylinders filled the place, each line being at several meters from the next, giving anyone a wide space to walk around. Three clever Time Tots were walking around in middle of night, looking at the creepy place with unsaid amusement, knowing well that each one of those cylinders was a malfunctioning timeship that could take them to any place in any time they wished…. Or kill them horridly. Or maybe both, they could not know. But they knew that many of them had seen and been such amount of maddening things, and they could not help but figure how many wonders they could find if they only could know how to drive one._

_“Are you really sure that we can go back crossing The Cloisters?” Dipper asked to Aiden. “It sounds a little… suicidal” he said, a little worried. It was enoughly illegal to be in the very bottom of The Citadel to even think in a more dangerous situation in which involve._

_“Trust him Dipstick, Aiden-raven knows what he does” Mabel replied enthusiastically, squishing his shoulder._

_“Mabel!” He yelled happily, pushing her aside._

_“Hehe it’s the true bro-bro. We’ll go back home practically spinnnnning” she said, moving one of her hands at middle air. “Right Aide- Aiden?”_

_Mabel looked at him. He was in front of one of the TARDISes, a Type 40. It was littered with dust and one of its edges had a rusty patch, so it was sure that that timeship had seen a considerable amount of action. Aiden was looking at the old machine with great interest, almost like if was seeing other person. Knowing that mostly of the stored TARDISes were still alive, probably he was greeting. Aiden was smiling at the machine weakly but noticeable, and lifted a hand, approaching it to the surface of the TARDIS._

_“Whoooa you’re gonna touch it!!” Mabel shouted pitchy. “Come on Aiden-raven, touch it touch it touch it!!” She aimed him repeatedly._

_“No, don’t touch it! It could be… I don’t know, radioactive or something” Dipper interrupted, waving his hands in a denial expression._

_“Oooh come on brother, what’s the point of have twelve lives if you don’t dare to use one?” she defied him, not losing her amusement._

_“Weeeeeell maybe I don’t want to go back home and explain why Aiden has a different face… or gender, he could turn into a girl!” Dipper answered serious, crossing his arms._

_“Iiiiiiiirgh!!! Aiden-girl!! He could be a really pretty girl!!” Mabel heighted her pitchy voice, squishing her fists against her cheeks. But Aiden didn’t put so much attention to answer. He was so captivated for the machine; something about it was so… familiar, like if the TARDIS was inviting him to go inside. His fingers were at scarce distance of the dusty surface, so tempting to touch it… Then he smiled, and lowered his hand. Maybe in other occasion, when he pass the driving test and has a place where to run away of Gallifrey._

_“Ooh come on Aiden, you didn’t touched” Mabel replied, disdained. “You could’ve been a reaaaaally gorgeous girl” She said, recovering her usual awe._

_“A what?” Aiden asked, confused._

_“Mabel said that you could regenerate into a girl if you’ll touched the faulting TARDIS” Dipper answered, disbelieved._

_“Come on Mabel, everyone knows that you only gender swap if you attempt to kill yourself” Aiden replied with ironic smile._

_“Certainly touch a faulting TARDIS counts as suicide” Dipper said._

_“Ohh you two freaks, wondering about my girl cuteness” He answered and walked between them, squishing them playfully between his arms. “SO, tell me, where do you like to go in the possible scenario of a mad runaway from Gallifrey?…”_

The next hundred meters until the entrance of the TARDISes’ bay were maybe the most uncomfortable meters that Ford could remember (And he was once been on a universe where the metabolism of its inhabitants was powered by awkwardness). Surely he remembered woeful places in which he had been among the entire Shifting situation, and could arge his own traumatizing experiences (If have his chance to say goodbye to his father, fall in love with Stan, find him dead God knows who many times the many times he got back from the Nightmare Realm, and assist a lot of runaways of the twins were not enough) but the difference was that he had passed to be only a visitor in most of them; angered, troubled, hurt and maybe a little traumatized for the question, but not in the scale she was. Mabel had seen Stan, Dipper, her own parents, her friends and love interests, to suffer so many rueful destinies so close of her, very close of her. And that discounting the things she had to deal for herself. No wonder why she was so determinated with Dipper every time they found out their mutual feelings. Their love was the only thing she could feel could go ahead even when she was not conscious of how much everyone had suffered…. That, until she was. Stanford had decades of experience dealing with hard things, but Mabel had thousands of lifetimes and not the half of the preparation. So he could easily conclude how bad she was passing it after seeing Stan to die once more. She wanted to forget, she really wanted to forget.

“Hey… Mabel?” Ford decided to break the silence. But Mabel didn’t answer. She lowered her walking, but kept moving anyway. Ford’s lungs felt heavy, filled in worry. Maybe it was too much for her, maybe…

“Why Cassie? She interrupted his mind rail.

“Cassie?” She suddenly stopped, and faced him with a face he had never seen in her. The face of deception.

“You could have used us to stop the grid of timelines… A lot of time ago. But instead you used the shards to get Cassie out from them, and Darlene too. And you could’ve faced the beings which are doing all of this just getting yourself out of the grid and face him for yourself. You have weapons, and nerdy stuff for all purposes, but instead you saved the ones you could save and waited for us. And we’re here, sneaking for a chance of get out of here. You really don’t think we can win this don’t you?”

“Mabel I – “

“And the worst of all is that you let Grunkle Stan to die up there! Again!!” Mabel yelled at him, getting more and more angered.

“Mabel we have no –“

“I thought I could save Aiden from whatever that could’ve happened to him, but he’s not here, and he should! And Mom and Dad are dead in this timeline!” Mabel yelled stronger. His breaths became more paused, as she was holding her despair. “There’s no way to fix this there isn’t?” She said softer, with her lips trembling weakly. “You knew me and Dipper were connected to the shifting and let us to break it”

Ford got out of words. Mabel was right, terribly right. And he had no way to bear the dizziness of the bare feeling of confront the fact that all the years he spent seeking to save his universe were in vain. He felt like if he was being lying himself too to push himself to stop whatever was meddling with the universe, and now Mabel was telling what he hadn’t the nerve to say himself.

There was a short pause before Ford could dare to say something, and every bit of time weighed as hell to Mabel.

“What else I could’ve done Mabel?” Ford ended the silence. “I’ve been out there Mabel. The things I’ve seen, the things I couldn’t even think in fight. There’s no way out of this. The powers we’ve trying to fight could squish this world with the tip of their fingers. How to tell you that there’s no hope against that?”

“We defeated Bill –“

“No. We defeated Bill _once_. Out there, whatever is doing this defeated Bill for itself _lots_ of times just to contain it here; do you really believe we have a chance against that?” Ford asked sternly. Mabel got serious, and gave her best answer.

“I believe in what we can do together”

Ford’s seriousness vanished at the moment he remembered the lesson, the most important lesson he could’ve ever learned before. And a brief spark of hope got out of his face…

_Zzzap!!_

A brief dot of light illuminated Ford’s back, and he fell in knees, trembling. Mabel got in knees as well, holding his shoulders. The noise of dozens of soldiers, and a metallic door opening itself echoed across the corridor.

“No! Grunkle Ford!!” She shouted. “I’m sorry! We had no time for this!”

“No.. I’m sorry. I lost the hope, and I made you to do so many dumb things. But I never needed hope at all. I had to trust you, trust in our family. We’ve done amazing things, and more if we stick together…” He mustered slowly.

“There’re there, get them!” They heard from the distance.

“You must go, I’ll distract them. There’s a regeneration left for me. Come on, go. I trust” He said, closing his eyes.

“I gonna fix this, I promise” Mabel said, lifting from ground. Next thing Ford saw was she running, and the next thing he heard were the troops moving towards him.

“Make it noisy Stanford” He mustered to himself…

Mabel ran across the TARDISes’ bay, trying to lose the soldiers, but they were too many, and she was alone. Maybe it could’ve been a good idea to take a gun from the grunkles now that she was thinking it, but for now was too late. She keep avoiding the shoots, moving across a maze made of junked TARDISes, hearing the steps of her persecutors tackle against the metallic floor, feeling them to rasp in her ears. And a moment, she was cornered for both sides, with teen soldiers at both sides of the TARDISes’ corridor. A soldier in front of her pointed at her, and she looked back at him with fury and determination…

_Zzzap!!_

She felt like her guts imploded inside her and her lungs tangled itselves like shoelaces, and her meeting with the floor turned into an eternal experience. She could just focus on the agony of her innards turning into pulp and the last hope she had falling with her….

_Thump!… “Zhsiiiiiop._

She opened her eyes, combusted in endless despair. Far echoes of voices resounded at her feet, and the first thing she saw was a white ceiling, not even matching with how the ceiling of the TARDISes’ bay was. Bubbling and synthetized sounds were heard closer to her head, and a painful but quick glance at her surroundings gave her back her hope. Impossible, and miraculous as it was, she was inside of one of the TARDISes. And if the TARDIS wanted her inside, the soldiers should have to spend a time trying to open it. Not much, but the enough to pilot it. And her proud, still functional gallifreyan brain had the exact instructions to do it (She had the best results in her driving test, rivaling even with Dipper’s). But she had to lift first, and her tummy was still burning as hell. She rounded heavily around herself, with the pressure of what the echoing voices of the soldiers were saying. Her stomach hit the floor, and every difuse wound inside her made itself clear that moment.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!” she screamed in utter, absolute suffering, paralyzed for a moment of her vain attempts to breath. But then she saw at her hand, recharged over the floor.

_Oh no, not now please!_

Her hand was shining as blurred fire strings, accompanied of a flute-like boiling sound. Her immediate aches turned diffuse but still present. It didn’t matter; it was enough for her to have the required concentration to lift herself from the ground. She recharged her glowing fists over the cold ground, and then her feet pushed her body up, holding herself with the dusty console of the TARDIS. She was feeling to come, undeniable, unavoidable. She knew what was coming, thus it was change or die. It didn’t mattered, she had no enough forces to hold it.

_No, no, no! Not now, he won’t recognize me. Please no…_

She put straight over her feet, and closed her eyes, letting her inner flares to burn….


	34. The Timey Whimey Situation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes are on the verge of find the Could've King, but they'll have a plenty of time to meet each other. Again. And Again... And again and again...

_“… And we must follow the map” The Doctor appointed._

_-_

“… So, do you know if I exist – you know – in your timeline?” Aiden asked softly, looking away his sight from Cassie. She scratched her head slightly, and looked at the floor.

“Weeeeelll once I poked around a box in Mom’s room and I found a yearbook. I could swear I saw you , but… I don’t know, some things had gotten a little blurry lately” Cassie answered. He looked at the TARDIS’s doors, disappointed. “Hey, that doesn’t mean you weren’t her friend. I mean, a lot of their lives before me still on the secrecy, anything can happen” She said to him, smiling.

“Yeah, you’re right” He replied.

“Well, enough talking young peoples, it’s time to go” The Doctor said, pulling the lever…

-

“…Racaxa-Rabladaxa.., Urgh! I can’t!” Mason replied, annoyed.

“Hah! Come on Mason, you almost get it” The Doctor insisted, looking at her with amusement.

“Ok ok ok. One last time. Raxa-corico-fa…falapatorious! Wohzaaah!! I did it!” She exclaimed proudly. “So, I’ll pull the lever, war man” She said, pulling the lever…

-

“Welcome, to the storage room” The Doctor welcomed his companions. There was a full garage filled of closets, chairs and tables with lots of things in there, above and below. Cassie took a curious parasol with lots of red question marks imprinted.

_Mhmm, this looks familiar for something…_

“Hey Cassie, catch it!” Aiden said to her, throwing her a coloured scarf. “I think you could like it”

“Hehe, its bizarre, but I like it”

“Hey, That was my favorite scarf once, be corteous” The Doctor replied.

“Ok, just for the records, what we’re doing here?” Darlene asked.

“We’re on search of the weapon supply. I don’t tend to use weapons, but I’ve been on a war a long time and one can’t prevent to pick up some soldier in the way, and sometimes they left things forgotten” The Doctor replied, searching among lots of unclassified clothes.

“What about the sonic weapon?” Aiden asked, with a pair of clothe pieces in their respective perches between his hands.

“That? That’s a hair drier boy” The Doctor answered, out of sight.

“That huge thing is a hair drier? Hah! For what?” Aiden asked amusedly.

“Well my boy, it is obvious that you’ve never been in Delphon. Its inhabitants communicate with their eyebrows, so they take a special care of their personal appearances” The Doctor replied. Suddenly he got out from a cloth pile, with a metallic box in his hands. “I found it. Everyone into the console”

“Wow, I go I go” Mason said, having been proving herself a few hats, not getting aware that she forgot her bonnet.

So the group reached the main room, and Aiden put in front of the lever.

“Ready?” The Doctor said.

“Ready” Aiden answered, nodding. He pulled the silver lever strongly, and the TARDIS began to get noisy…

-

“… and then Dad hit the creature not knowing it was Soos until Melody came screaming and…” Cassie stopped her talk, getting into a curious feeling.

“What?” Mason asked, a little confused.

“Ehmmm… Nothing, all fine” She replied, shaking her head. “Doctor, when we go to the Never Castle?” Cassie asked, looking at the console.

“Right now my fair lady” The Doctor answered, pulling the silver lever…

-

“Doctor. I- I’ve thinking. I… I don’t really fit in the reality from which I came so, if you don’t mind, maybe you could…” Darlene struggled to say. The Doctor understood almost immediately, and smiled at her warmly.

“Darlene, I come from a place everything except pleasant” The Doctor replied, and Darlene immediately looked away, disappointed and sad. “But I could get you a place where you can be. After all I still having the dimensional node” He continued. She raised her head with a wide smile and moisty eyes, getting a new hope for her. “Mhmm, what if you make the honors?” The Doctor asked.

“Oh hell yes” Darlene replied, pulling the lever. For a brief moment she asked herself how she knew how to use TARDIS…

-

“Don’t you think the things will go weird if I meet him? I know for Mabel that meet other selves is not a funny deal” Mason asked, scratching her head.

“Oh come on, he’ll surely love you!- I mean, in a brother-sister way, not in the ehmm… Usual way” Cassie replied, grinning nervously.

“Hah, fall in love with my other self, that could be weird-“ Mason stood still frozen, noticing something wrong. “Where’s my bonnet?” She asked. “Guys, where’s my bonnet?” She said, looking at the rest of the TARDIS crew. Everyone, except the Doctor, exchanged glances, slightly confused.

“Mhm true. Maybe you lost it out there” Aiden said. “I could go to pick it up, after all I’ve not been in Gravity Falls before; I want to taste a little of that weirdness-feeling” He said enthusiastically.

“We’ll find it later young people, for now we’ll move” The Doctor said, pulling the silver lever…

-

“Oh right, something’s happening and I’m not liking it” Darlene said, looking around everywhere.

“Oh no, I feel it too” Cassie replied, getting more serious.

“I notice it too, It’s like.. like…” Mason tried to articulate.

“What?” Aiden asked, frowning in confusion.

“Oh right. Let’s try something” The Doctor said, pulling the lever…

_Mason’s head hurts as hell, as if it is receiving the full hit of a cosmic crash. Everything around her is bluish and glass-like in appearance. But in the middle of all the new alien environment, she feel something familiar, something like… Herself!_

_She see a young male figure, floating at discrete distance, nude and blurry. She has no doubt, and as far as she can tell, it’s her only chance to warn them without the intervention of the beings who’re scheming this._

_“Dipper…. Dipper?” She tries to yell, but her voice gets distorted as more far it reaches. How he’s hearing it she can’t guess yet._

_“Who’s there”? Who are you?” She hears from the figure, who looks like if he is moving around everywhere._

_“Dipper! You must listen to me. We’re coming, but I need to know where you are… Dipper!…”_

-

“AAAAARGH!” Mason yelled, holding her head tightly. It felt like something inside her head was wounded and bleeding cold over her brain. Aiden took her shoulders, worried.

“Mason! Are you ok?” Aiden asked, as Mason looked at him with her face reddened and her eyes wet. “Doctor what’s happening?”

“Maybe-“ The Doctor said, pulling the lever…

-

“Oh Gosh! Oh my frigging Gosh What’s happening?!” Darlene asked panicked, taking her head with her hands.

“My head… pained?” Mason said, unsure. She had the feeling of having just suffered a lot and now she was not feeling anything at all.

“This is like a… like an endless loop! We’re stuck on a loop!” Cassie said, giving a pair of steps back.

“Doctor?” Aiden said, looking at him.

“Once more” The Doctor said, pulling the lever…

-

“My brain is gonna explode just stop it!” Darlene yelled at the airs, unable to handle the feeling. It was something soothing and uncomfortable, and she was feeling it bellow her two skins.

“Doctor what’s going on?” Aiden asked, looking at her with fear.

“It must be the security system. If the TARDIS is menaced with self-destruction it isolates every life form inside in a continuous loop” The Doctor said, opening the metallic plate in which the lever was and scanning it with the sonic screwdriver.

“So, if we get out we’re… dead?” Mason asked, tensing her breaths.

“I doubt it, the TARDIS has been responding in strange ways to the spatiotemporal distortions we’ve been experiencing, but what activated the loop must be more serious than we got before” The Doctor answered moving unsaid amounts of cables. “I can disable the loop but…”

“We’ll be exposed” Cassie said, looking at the doors. There was an uncomfortable silence, and everyone exchanged glances one time more.

“Ok, we’re doing this” Aiden said, gulping.

“Right! Everyone, hold on in whatever you see, I’ll disable the loop and she’s probably going to interpret it like an intrusion” The Doctor said, closing the metallic plate.

“An intrusion of what?” Mason asked, holding herself from a pillar.

“I hope we’ll not figure it now” The Doctor answered, pulling the lever…

“!Aaaaaaaaaah!” Aiden screamed, being sucked away as the doors opened. Cassie took her hand quickly, but Aiden was too heavy, and her hand still holding the pillar she got suddenly lost force.

“No nooo!!!” Cassie yelled, being sucked with him.

Before they could process it, they were spinning away in middle nothingness, screaming aloud.

“Nooo I’m sorry Cassie!” Aiden yelled tearfully.

“Don’t give up boy Aaaaaaaah!” Cassie screamed, holding his hand tightly. “My glaseeee-!”

Suddenly Cassie felt something holding her left ankle, and they stepped their ceaseless launching. Aiden opened his eyes, not aware that he caught Cassie’s glasses with his free hand, and looked at the way from which they were thrown away. A long line of spiderweb held Cassie’s leg, and in the other extreme there was Darlene holding it between her hands, being her held form her high waist by Mason, whose ankle was being held by The Doctor. The only thing that spared all of them from fall into the depths of the Time Vortex was the Doctor’s other hand, holding one of the TARDIS’s doors with all his forces.

All of them were floating tensed by undescriptible forces, inside a trembling, dark space. Clouds of shiny dust extended from the far beyond, and a gigantic tear in the skies poured strange and waving light streams. Cyclocks and every sort of things without a proper name but doubtlessly carnivorous flew around them with their draconic wings, approaching to them with predatorily intentions. 

“What’s happening?!!!” Cassie yelled, trying to overcome her voice overcome the crippling sounds around everywhere else.

“It’s Darlene, she saved us with line of… Spiderweeb?” Aiden replied happily, darting his eyes to see better.

“What?! Eugh eugh eugh eugh!!! I know where she spits that from!!” Cassie yelled in response.

“I can let you two to fall right now girl!!” Darlene yelled at them, still holding the line.

“I’m going to pull! Everyone be prepared!!” The Doctor shouted aloud, and with a strong pull of his arms, she got all of them to get in in a fast, spinning movement.

The TARDIS’s doors closed it selves, and the occupants fell to the floor. All of them were breathing heavily, unable to process yet how close they were this time.

“Good job Doc, you made it” Mason said, lifting her head from the ground briefly to make a thumb up.

“Please don’ tell me “Doc”, it sounds bad” The Doctor replied, throwing a brief laugh just after.

“SOoooh, this… this is how weird it gets?” Aiden asked, still inhaling and exhaling frenetic.

“Maybe… a little less hard the most of time but yes, more or less” The Doctor replied, nodding with his head recharged over a pillar.

“Cool” Aiden said, recharging his head over the ground. “Cass, your glasses” He said, passing them to her. “Thank you”

“Thank you for save my glasses Aids, I don’t know where to get a new ones now” Cassie said, taking her glasses and putting them on.

“Aids, I like that nickname… Maybe I could conserve it after all of this ends” He replied merrily. 

“Fuuuff, that was intense, how about a three-minutes rest before to get up? You know, we can’t reach the Never Castle in this state” Darlene suggested.

“Maybe a little less Darlene, but it’s fine” Mason said, raising a thumb up.

Soon, the TARDIS disappeared from the damaged Time Vortex; this time, right to the Never Castle…


	35. The Young Crone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alone, bitter, and out of options. She had come from a very far place, and she won't let her last chance go...

_\- The Void (Dimension 0), not so much time ago…_

_Anger. It was everything she could feel. Under her hazardous circumstances, any other person could simply fall into madness, get scared to die, or cray ceaselessly. But she was no any other person, and she had a lot of reasons for herself to be angry and overcome the craziness of the place in which she was with her sole fury. Thus it was a lot of fury; tons of barrels of boiling bile that were distracting them of the lack of gravity, the scent to burnt hair and the lots and lots of traumatizing big things that were scattered along everywhere, if she doesn’t count the nightmarish beasts. Where she was, her anger was her best compass against madness._

_She was on the very heart of Creation, the vast, borderless realm from which the universes come to life._

_It was a place forbidden to cross, except for the ones which didn’t have an option, and the only thing whose fearsome nature frightened even the most cultured civilizations. Some people called it The Void. Other people named it The Howling. Others more, the Nightmare Realm. For now, she had a lot of swears for her actual prison; and endless prison to spend the Eternity, if she was not going to get eaten first. Flocks of whatever thing could have wings were flying around very close to her, and some of them were really enormous in their nature. High pitched, tricephalian golden dragons, whose wings fed enormous rainless storms near one of those gigantic spheres, looked like the best candidates to eat her first. Their continuous screeching in some way remembered someone, and that made her feel angrier than ever. She could guilt her for her actual condition, but how could she imagine that she was going to find the damn apparatus and said machine was going to malfunction and leave her there? That sounded unfair… unfair, until the moment she remembered WHY she found that little damn thing to begin. Yet she had been warned about the Weirdness; she didn’t listen at all, no matter how much she was said. Being fair Her face reddened in contained cholera, and closed her eyes so firmly that almost squish them against her brain. And she screamed._

_“CUUUUURSE YOU FOREEEEEEEEVER M-!!!!!!!!…” She yelled aloud, in every direction, ceaseless, until she got aware that one of those golden dragons with three heads hard her, and its pitching began to sound closer and closer, accompanied by noisy thunders and a low hum to something burnt. The creature was even bigger than she believed at first, and she could imagine herself being dismembered at the best style of any slash movie she could’ve seen in the past. She frowned defiantly to the creature, not willing to die, not willing to make pass with the things that brought her there, not willing to give up…._

_ _

_“Bidibidibidibidi….”_

_The creature turned back so quick that she saw clearly how it used its two tails and legs to propel itself across the foamy space between them the enough rapid to change its path abruptly. Why it changed their intentions so fast? She was about to discover it._

_A strange sensation covered her even bellow her clothes. Something like electricity and humid jelly hitting every inch of her skin at same time mixed with a bit of an orgasm and dots of being punched in the lips. It was a maddening feeling, even more than be where she was, something she deemed impossible until that moment. That feeling, now occupying most of her attention, made her know that it felt more intense in determined direction. Intrigued, she flapped with her hands and legs to move herself into that direction. With much less effort than she could imagine, she turned to the direction of that awful sensation._

_At first it was just a humble white dot in the farness, not even the enough close to acknowledge it as thing. But then it got closer and closer, until feeble details became clearer, as more visible the distortion in her sight became around that object. Like made of dirty white marble, it had lots of spikes…. No, they were towers, and her stomach punched itself when she got aware how big this moving edification was. It looked like ripped off of a stony floor, with a line of green around its base and littered in their walls with thousands of tiny windows (that surely they had to be even bigger than she could guess). More frightful yet, was that the floating palace, like taken from a nightmare it was speeding to towards her every faster and faster._

_Now she was sure she was going to die horridly._

_“No… Noooooo!!!!!!” Shew screamed, half covering her face with her arms, waiting to be impaled by any of the towers’ spikes, squished with the walls, or deformed beyond recognition for the waves of total madness that poured outside that loathsome edification. Now it was so close that she could not see other thing, and one of the towers was pointing to her breast so clearly… It was speeding, it was speeding so fast!!!!!!!….._

_“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”…_

_And then, nothing._

_Nothing at all. Really nothing at all. Like an illusion, the white palace stood still, with no whipping, with no trace of dust of the waves that distorted her sight. She opened her eyes, waiting to see herself disemboweled alive, when in the precise moment that her eyelids got apart, she became aware that there was gravity, and everything around her suddenly was dark; everything except for her. She looked clear, like illuminated with a lantern, but there was no light nor shadow onto the floor, much like she was being the illusion casted out from some place. Quickly she put on feet, and looked around every direction in that unsettling darkness. Then, she picked the sensation of be watched for someone._

_“Who’s there? Show yourself!” She yelled angry, turning her hands into fierce fists. Her mind for a single second drove into the possibility that everything she experienced was just a sort of hyper elaborated prank of some kind, for much as impossible that possibility was, when she saw how the figure she demanded to show itself casted out of shadows._

_“I salute you, human lady” His deep voice spoke. It was a tall, humanoid figure, with greyish, glass-like skin, dressed with a long blackish coat perched together around his neck with a golden flower at his left side. His hands and feet were clothed with pieces of seemingly different armors, and over his faceless head, there was a pure, black crown, with three long rectangle pieces coming up, being the middle one the biggest of all. She breathed creakingly, and yelled again._

_“Who’re you? Why I’m here? Answer me!” She said, not willing to fear. She felt how the being smiled in his mind and that made her to feel even more irritated. Was this brand new set of things playing with her like a cat with a piece of yarn?_

_“I perceive you’re angry and willing to fight. But there’s no need of such behaviors here. You’re on my castle now, you’re safe” The being spoke in a more calmed tone. But she didn’t lowered her aims._

_“No. I- Do you think I’ve not seen your palace out there? You’ve seen me, above everything else around and you casually picked me in? You were searching for me, why?” She asked furiously._

_“Wow. I admire your cleverness but you’re wasting your courage in vain. Yeah, I was looking for you, but no why you think it” The being said, still calmed. She crossed her arms, disdained, For some reason, maybe entirely own, she was still not trusting._

_“So…?”_

_“You wear a signal. A signal of something I’m searching for. But you’re not what I’m searching. I’m searching something else. But still, you can help me” The being spoke in a very courteous way. She frowned for a moment, pondering the possibilities of his statement. Thinking in the wild way she was thinking now, she guessed that this creature needed her, that needed her approval for something. She had a card to play and escape her excruciating situation, so she had to be more clever than him._

_“So I can guess I have the right to a request If I’m not wrong” She asked with stern determination._

_“A… request?” The being replied in such way that it was obvious for her that she had caught him off guard, probably for first time in a long time ago. Her cards augmented, so she had to be even more clever now._

_“Yes. I can infer that you need I agree with whatever you want to do with me to accomplish something you need. So, You must hit my price, my friend” She said, sure of every one of her words. Against all awaited response, she felt how the faceless being smiled proudly. Was he really happy of just being overwhelmed by the creature he just saved?_

_“Heh. You really impress me. No doubt you’ll be useful to me. I agree with you terms, as I, as you’ve correctly guessed, need your willing help to accomplish my task” The creature said, tipping his pointy fingers of his hands on against other. “Even when I need your help, I’m still being a someone of vast powers. I can accomplish everything you might want in return, just ask”_

_She definitively had the winning deck in her bare hands, so tasty as she could press it between her mind’s fingers. But this creature cold be trusted to accomplish whatever she could want? After all, something in his powers had a limit, something that needed her to overcome. And right now, she was sure that she could be sent back home just asking, but it wasn’t enough for her. Now that she had the exit door just in front of her she wanted more, she wanted to return with something, make her brief nightmare to be worth of the effort. So she thought deeper for a moment… Think deeper… Deeper…!!! Instantly, she got her true wish, but first she had to try the forces of her willing helper in some way, and what better way, than ask what this newly met being wants to do that needs her?_

_“What do you want to do with me?” She asked serious but aimed._

_“Why so interested?” The creature asked with certain demure._

_“If you need me, that means your power has limits, that means… That maybe you can’t help me with what I… need” She replied, for a moment fearing to be too overbold with her manners. After all, she was still being just a puny human in middle of the wasteland between realities, right now, with a lot to lose._

_“I see” The being said. With no warning, the overcoming darkness literally melted over crystalline walls and floor, and a huge transparent wall like a window was made visible, one from which she could see the infinite space beyond the walls of the oneiric building. He walked towards the window, and looked at the Infinite. “What I want to do is a noble task. A long, very long time ago, I lived on a world. My people had vast powers and me and my brother were their rightful rulers. But the cosmos in which my world is, is dying, slowly but certain. With most of our forces I was able to get out, to search aid in other universes, but I got stuck in middle of a cosmic war between two hellish civilizations. What I found… Whom I found, had no name. Beings whose entire time streams were ripped apart in a lust of blood and madness. And I, with all my powers, decided to help them, to return their lives. But every time I did, they were being robbed again by the mischievous Time Lords, so I decided other thing… I tought them to fight. And we fought, and spilled entire worlds in blood and madness. It was an endless cycle of death, one I want to break. But neither me have the power to undo the disgrace of my armies and the disgrace of my people. And, in one of those worlds, I found a way to escape that reality. Me and some of my soldiers wander across the universes, looking for a special place which holds the required power to save my people, to save my armies. But such places exist in very particular conditions, and find them is impossible… unless you get someone who belongs to such places, in the right time. Someone who wears the taint of an important event in history… “_

_“Someone like me” She interrupted him, walking to the gigantic window._

_“Yes. Someone like you. More if this special event occurs in more than one reality, some kind of… improbable set of things. You wear that taint, you are the needle of a compass I can’t use. Help me, and everything you heart could desire will be yours…”_

_Anything. Anything. That word hit her. Hit her in in a heartbreaking way, about a heartbreaking problem, the one which send her to where she was right now. She felt the full punching of Destiny right in her throat, and made the right question, the one that could determine if this apparently almighty creature really could help her._

_“How could you unlock the power?” She asked, looking firmly at the frightful face of Creation with unmoving determination._

_“Of my brothers, the Wearers of the Being, I hold the power of What Could’ve Been. I can splint a single History in every possible iteration, every thing that could’ve been but didn’t happened. One of those iterations, the one which negates that powerful event in the time stream, that unlocks the power. That’s how I could return my armies to the History, that’s how I gave them new life when they were robbed of their lives, and that’s why I need this castle. This, is the Never Castle, my amplifier. With it, I can do that to an entire universe, unlock the power, unlock the life” The creature spoke determined and warmly. Now she knew this being had just what she wanted, just what she… needed. And she was not going to let it go._

_“Maybe, it is destiny. I need to undo a tragedy, something that destroyed my family, and you have exactly the power I need to prevent it. I’ll help you, and in exchange, I want the power to do what you can do” She said, turning to face him, with a totally serious expression. Then she felt it. The hesitation. The inner conflict inside him, and her anger grew for a moment. But she had to be patient, she had to be strong. Then a thing sat on his mind, and his feeling changed to determination._

_“It’s a deal. I’ll give you the power, and I’ll teach you how to use it. But you’ll use it only once, Only. Once. The powers I hold are not to be used indiscriminately and not forgetting you’re strong willed and brave, you’re still being a human, and your species is young; you have still so much to learn” The creature said sternly. Something of those last words was actually really serious. She extended her hand, and he shook in response._

_“I am the Could’ve Been King, and I accept our contract” he said. She thought for a moment if reveal her true name or not… For once, for now, she could be another person, the person she needed to be now._

_“I am the Young Crone, and I accept the power you’ve invested on me” She responded, grinning proudly…_


	36. A Brand New Chance

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!”….

Mabel opened her eyes, very very cautiously. Something had happened, something wrong. Every inch of her felt quite different, like if her entire body was tore into pieces and cojointed again, cell by cell. She didn’t want to see how she was now, really didn’t, but how to resist the urges? In the life she had in that world always wondered how she could change after that occurs.

_Come on come on come on come on, just a little pick._

But right before to hold the monitor of the console to see how was her face now, she remembered the soldiers. She looked at the TARDIS’s doors, not hearing anything at all. Did they stop? Or something else happened? She looked at the lower monitor, and saw the TARDIS’s actual coordinates.

_Interesting. Very interesting._

She ran to the doors, and opened them of a single kick. Then, she just stared at the new view. Gallifrey was not more in there. Instead, a bright, horrific white scar was cutting the horizon of space at half, and moving out of place every galaxy around, twistingly beyond any discernible shape. How quick such view was clear being at hundreds of light years from her had an even worse explanation; and Mabel knew it.

“Seriously Grunkle Ford, curse you” She responded… in a seductive, deep woman voice. She stood frozen in front the opened doors, feeling like the atmospheric shield failed judging for how she gasped to lose her breath. Immediately, she turned around and ran back to the console as the doors closed it selves behind her, and almost ripped the monitor to turn it to her face.

“Oh Danglendang!” She exclaimed. Decolored brown skin, pale freckles over her cheekbones and black, curly hair instead her usual hair. She looked below to see her hands, so brown as her face was. She looked back to the monitor to see herself . Even her nose was ridiculously snug and her eyes wider than before. In most situations she probably could admire herself with amused curiosity, but she recognized that face, and she didn’t like it at all for a lot of reasons in a lot of different timelines.

“Oh no. I’m her. I’m literally her!” She exclaimed, with no one except the TARDIS around to hear her. “I got the face of the girl I stole her bike from! Dam tackling girl!!! Wait, how she was called?…”

Mabel remembered the several timelines in which she knew her; sometimes with that face, and others with variations of it, and suddenly she was recalling every single time she messed up her day, in a way or another, and buffed in exasperation and guilt.

“Oh no. I got Ellen’s face. Can you believe TARDIS? I got Ellen-zellen’s face!! What a bunch of karma I got” She said to herself (and her actual TARDIS). “Oh well, it’s not that bad, at least she’s pretty… or was pretty! Blargh!! I really hate to wear this face. Should I regenerate to undo this…?” She pondered for a moment. Then she remembered the difficult situation in which she was, and deemed better to reserve her remaining regenerations until she really need them. For now, she had eleven lives remaining.

_Oh right Mabel, let’s find Dipper…. No. Not yet._

Her mind instantly got back to that person who took place every few times in her memories, the person she loved so much and at the same tame she didn’t knew existed for moments. The person whose feeling about was killing her, and which surely right now was in a serious danger. Right in that moment, she remembered Cassie.

She (wherever she could be now) was not safe anymore. Dipper was still on the scape pod, speeding to the location of the enemy, but Cassie was out there, struggling in a strange new world, with all probabilities against her. Her stomach punched itself at that though, now she had access to all her memories with her, and the life they had with her as a family. She closed her eyes, tasting every memory of her existence, and her lips trembled. She remembered her inside her tummy, and how Dipper used to put his hear over her stomach to hear their baby. She remembered the first time she was between her arms, her first steps, and her first day in school; her first fistfight, and the hard times she had accepting her complicated nature. And above all, she recalled how brave she was, how stubborn and determinate and strong willed their daughter was. Right now, every Mabel wanted to do was to hug her.

Then, her time lord memories took place. Her eyes drifted towards to the plate of the white console, the only which didn’t had any button or lever of any kind. She still had a way to find her, and was going to hurt a lot. She walked towards the empty plate, and lifted up, revealing a spongy, viscous semitransparent gum fabric, shinning and pulsating.

_That’s it! The telepathic circuits._

“Ok TARDIS, you and I we’re going to have special moment, so please, keep in one piece” She said. She sighed aloud, and closed her eyes, getting her hand inside the humid material. Now the only thing she had to do was to remember. Every good day, and every bad day, every moment of happiness and sadness, before and after her birth. “I gonna find you Mini-Me” She said to herself.

Right into that moment, the TARDIS began to whisper…


	37. The Gates of Destiny

The TARDIS materialized above a stony floor, moving dense clouds of dust as its presence oscillated more solid. The drumming sound echoed across the vast spaces between her and the far walls around them one last time, and the left door opened halfway, with an old face coming out to see the surroundings.

“I’m almost sure we’re there at last” The Doctor said, feigning to be sure. The coordinates were the specified, but he was beginning to suspect that the Could’ve Been King had token his precautions to avoid detection. Easily they could be thousands of years out of phase, and he could already destroyed the universe; or they could be a very long time before, and easily those could be in the ruins of one of the many fallen worlds this universe surely had. Anyway, the air was breathable, and the gravity felt quite earthly, so the best he could do was to trust in their efforts to reach the otherworldly palace.

“What a mess” Cassie said, peeping out below The Doctor.

“Hey! A dusty place has its sense of mystery. I think it’s fancy” Darlene replied, peeping out between Cassie and the Doctor. The three of them heard someone knocking behind them, and turned around.

“Hey guys, what If we go out? It seems better than just look around” Mason interrumped.

The team got out of the TARDIS, and walked around the place, admiring their complicated, half-church, half-organic in their design. Slender glassless windows, several stories above them, let Gamma Cassiopeia’s light to enlighten weakly the endless hall, letting them know how little they were comparing to the place. Everything looked impossibly old, but at the same time in a pretty solid state, and the way in which the light dispersed once inside the hall announced the intervention of strange and nameless forces acting over the surroundings. The place, even if was matching to the human conditions, was obvious to be constructed under different rules than the ones of that reality; rules that, for a being of weak mind, could drive them to unsaid regions of madness beyond the reach of the senses.

“This… place is enormous, how we’ll find the king?” Aiden asked, looking at the immense, round ceiling, feeling the instinctive need to focus in something to avoid the uneasy feeling that menaced to break through every pour of his skin.

“There must be a way to move around the place. The Never Castle is too big for just walk from a room to the other” The Doctor inquired, scanning the surroundings with the sonic screwdriver.

“Unless he can teleport himself” Cassie suggested, still on the stupor which the place produced. It was a confusing sensation the one she was feeling, almost like if she was in home, despite having never been there and also being a quite enveloped for the uneasiness.

“True. Why we don’t just teleport too? I mean; space-time machine? Endless detectors? I’m sure we won’t take too much to find him” Aiden asked, waving around at prudent distance. He was unsure if he mentioned it for his inner logic, or the urges to go back running inside the TARDIS, but luckily for him, he was enough brave to resist the feeling at will. The Doctor looked at his screwdriver with a dismissive glance, getting tired to announce bad news.

“It is not a good idea boy. The artron signatures are on the roof; if we try to move inside the Never Castle we could be ending destroy it or worse”

“What kind of worse?” Mason asked, scratching her left arm with growing worried.

“The Could’ve Been King just made a rip inside the very fabric of the time stream of this universe; whatever he’s doing is already destroying the universe. If we want to undo it, we must keep this place as intact as possible” The Doctor answered, looking at his new team. Cassie frowned in worry, and for a moment everyone exchanged glances.

“Hey, where’s Darlene?” Aiden asked, as he was turning around his eyes in every direction. Suddenly, a gigantic, centauroid spider jumped in front of him, and he instantly fell over his back, screaming aloud. For a moment the dam he built in his mind broke down a little, and that second he screamed lasted a minute for him.

“Here!” Darlene exclaimed joyfully, stretching her arms behind her back in a relaxed expression.

“What the heck…!” He exclaimed furiously, looking at her utterly terrified, hoping to not already begun to hallucinate.

“Hold on boy, had you never seen an arachnimorph before?” Darleen asked, scratching her head with her spidery hand.

“No, I’ve never seen something like you before, should I?” He responded frantically, shaking his head frantically.

“Ooooooh… Sorry, I was already wondering which Aiden were you” Darlene said, extending her hand to help him to get up. “I guess we’ll talk it later”. Aiden looked at her claw she had for hand, struggling to not make case to every instinct of fear or menace he was feeling right now. He held her hand at the moment, so she helped him to put on feet. “I found an entrance in that wall, It only can be seen thru my spider form’s eyes” Darlene said to the rest of the team, looking at them with determination.

“Guide us” The Doctor said sternly.

Darlene walked to the right wall, several meters far from them across the growing darkness, as the once smooth walls began to acquire intricate details. Figures of unknown monsters, carved delicately into the greyish stone became visible for them, but they were just too big to be correctly appreciated, so if they wanted to put attention on what was the big picture, they should go back to the distance in which they were invisible. Everything about that place appeared to be made to drive their attention out of them.

“Look! The bas-reliefs! We only can see them when see them properly when we’re too far and we can’t see them” Cassie pointed with her index to the walls. “This place is confusing”

“I can see them” Darlene pointed out.

“What you can see?” Aiden asked, finding in his curiosity a new distraction from the horrid sensation.

“I’m not quite an arts historian but it seems like a battle. At the left there’s a bunch of soldiers with no face and at the right is a cyclops triangle with a top hat coming out from a… cross?

“Bill” Cassie said almost instantly. 

“Who’s Bill?” The Doctor asked.

“Bill Cipher” Aiden responded quickly. “Mabel told me about him. He was a kind of demon from other dimension who wanted to invade ours. She and her uncles aided to defeat him” Aiden kept talking, remembering with fondness the emotions Mabel showed when he told him the stories about Weirdmaggedon.

“Hey, don’t forget me – forget him – whatever, the me in this dimension” Mason interrupted with pretended indignation.

“Oh yeah, her Dipper helped too” Aiden replied, chuckling in relief.

“How your Weirdmageddon was?” Cassie asked to Mason.

“Bill tried to come through using the portal when Grunkle Ford came back; but he already had made the unicorn spell to shield the portal so he didn’t come in. But he imprinted some of his… stuff inside our dimension. The entire town became a kind of madness realm and we had to cross it to destroy the portal before he could pass. It was a literal madness” Maison said.

“Heh, That’s not how I remember my night tales” Cassie inquired.

“Mabel told you about Weirdmageddon as a night tale?! Woah, you’re such a brave girl” Aiden replied.

“Well it was more like a tag team between Mom and Unc…Dad” Cassie said, getting a little tense when she almost said the name she didn’t wanted to say anymore. No one there could notice it too much but she felt like she could still hurting his father even when he wasn’t there to hear it.

“Weeeeeeeeeeell we’re here!” Darlene interrupted, standing in front a wall. It looked not so special in any possible way. Nor the carvings in there were in a special position nor there was any line or hint that a door could exist, so Darlene looked quite goofy standing there proudly in her spider form, in front of absolutely nothing.

“I… I don’t see anything’ Aiden said, frowning in confussion.

“Pfff! Of course not, you can’t see it. Only I can. I don’t know, maybe the Could’ve Been King and my species sees the things in the same way. What do you say Doctor?…. Doctor?” Darlene repeated, not hearing a response. Everyone turned to see The Doctor, who was looking at the high parts of the wall.

“I always thought The Could’ve Been King was a sort of anomaly or the last son of one of the races that the Time War destroyed… But the carvings tell a history. He had a people. And that people comes from a very far place. He knew where he was going and spent time here tampering with Time when he could easily do it in my universe…” He talked, looking at the carved walls. “Why should be here?”

“Doctor… This changes something?” Mason asked. The Doctor looked at her, not very amused.

“Not yet; we still need to be cautious. All of you carry your palm weapons?” The Doctor asked”

“Yep” Mason answered, raising her hand, which had something that looked like a handshake prank toy.

“Check” Aiden raised his arm too.

“Yes” Cassie answered, raising her hand.

“The mine is… urgh, is on my human skin, I’ll have to put it on” Darlene said, stretching her human form above herself. Aiden drop jawed in disgust, and Darlene turned to see him. “What? It’s my human skin. My kind is born with them; it’s not like I stole from someone…. You humans are so picky” Darlene replied, rolling his eyes with her arms crossed.

“Hah! You have no idea my lady” The Doctor pointed out with a short laugh, turning his attention to the wall. He took off his sonic, and began to scan the walls. “ It’s a biologically encrypted block; it can be only accessed with the DNA of a species inside the data banks.

“Do you think that I…?” Darlene asked.

“It can be. Earth was affected too by the Time War, some of his Neverweres come from Earth. That may explain why only you can see the doorway. The environment must be suited for the sensorial experiences of its inhabitants at a quantum level. Unless…”

“Unless…?” Mason asked, getting worried again.

“Unless the DNA block applies to specific individuals and Darlene’s right. In such case, if anyone of us try to use it, it…” The Doctor said. There was again, an unconfortable silence. They were so close, and if the man who appeared to know how to fix everything was having trouble, it had to be a signal. Darlene frowned in determination, and walked towards the wall.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Cassie asked.

“There’s a hand scanner at the right side. I’m going to prove it” Darlene said, raising her right hand.

“What? No! we can still figure another way…” Cassie replied, getting worried.

“Cass, I saw the entire time breaking like a glass cup. I get what Ford did, but it’s time to stop to assume there are wildcards left for us. There are miles of this hall, it will take forever to seek something that probably doesn’t exist” Darlene said, taking off her necklace and approaching her hand to The Doctor. “This is a quantum saver. Is the thing I and Cass used to jump across the timelines, it can be useful” she said, letting it fall over The Doctor’s hand”

“Darlene” Mason said, gulping. “Good luck”

“Thanks. Aiden, you’re a hot boy with a big heart, don’t worry about if you’re mean. You never are mean. Cass…” Darlene stopped to think a moment, in how dramatic she could be if nothing happened, or how horrible it could be for her to see her die. “If I die here, tell Ford he’s an idiot, but a lovable one” . She sighed aloud, and put her hand over the invisible glass…

_“Which place could you like to go?” Darlene hears coming out of nowhere. She opens her eyes, and she’s on a misty, infinite sky of bright pink and sporadic sparks. Her skin feels strange, and she cannot say if she’s on a form or the other, she feels quite… mixed. She sees the giant amphibian, and for a moment she fears the worst._

_“Oh dammit I’m dead right? I’m sure one-hundredtrilllion percent sure I’m dead” Darlene says immediately. “But I never imagined that God could be a gigantic salamander, At least there are surprises” Darlene smiles briefly._

_“The terms which you speak about doesn’t exist in the ways in which you refer them, but I can figure why I’m praised in that way” The giant amphibian says. “Welcome to my realm, I am Axolotl”_

_“Ehmm… Hi! I’m Darlene” She replies politely. “So, I am dead right? Like a fly hit by a bug killer”_

_“No… Not yet. That’s because you’re here. I am… curious about you”_

_“I think I really lost it, I don’t get it” Darlene replies, scratching her head._

_“Of all the lives you’ve experienced, you’re the best version of yourself. But as you cut yourself from the cycles of time, you’re no longer available to go back once this is done. The person you’re now will cease of exist… forever”. The new hits her even more than the idea of be death, and her chest fills in contained screams she fell are menacing to come out._

_“So… So what shall be of me?” She tries to ask, feeling her eyes to get moisty and heavy._

_“I can bring you a new chance to live, as a payment for your sacrifice”_

_“Hold on froggy-buddy! Do you mean I’m not dead yet?” Darlene inquires in awe._

_“Not yet. That’s because you’re here. You have to make a choice” The eyes of the giant amphibian get shinny, as he still speaking. “I’m playing a chess game, one in which if I win, I can save this universe, and everyone in there. You already know my rook”_

_“Mason… Yes, she talked about you” She recalls, taking her chin between her fingers “So, what I am in this chess game?”_

_“A pawn. And not any pawn. You’re my most powerful pawn. You can skip to move when the menace is there, and can stand against the chances. But I fear I must make a sacrifice to win the game”_

_“So, why I must die?”_

_The giant amphibian casts the image of where she really is, with her palm now resting over the hand scanner._

_“There is no way out of the hall in which all of you are. Not even the TARDIS is able to go out. You could spend the rest of your lifetimes searching for a way out until all of you are dead. Or… You could activate the alarm, and alert the inhabitants of the Never Castle that you’re there, and your friends will still on the game._

_“Either way we’ll be killed! Why ask me something like that?” Darlene asks, awed to anger._

_“Because no matter how little is, there’s a probability. The beings behind this need so much help as you need. It is not only to save your universe. It is to save THEM, and to save HER”_

_“Her… Cassie, she used the necklace too. If she dies there, she dies forever as me. But if she’s captured…”_

_“She can still be restored to the History”_

_“That’s.. That’s not my choice! She deserves to go back as much as me! Why ask me something like that instead kill me for once?!”_

_“That is your choice. Risk, or sacrifice” The amphibian speaks. In front of her there’s a chess table, with an only pawn above it. “Braveness can be manifested in many different ways, now there’s no wrong choice, nor a bad choice. The only you have to do is to decide”_

_Darlene looks firmly at the pawn in the table. Her instincts urge her to incline to one choice, but in her mind, everything is clear. The majestic amphibian sees what she does with the pawn, and declares._

_“Decision made”._


	38. Break Time

\- _Gamma Cassiopeia’s Never Castle orbit, Gamma Cassiopeia’s System, a few moments ago_

_The TARDIS drummed once, announcing that it had already landed. Mabel looked at the window, unsure of what she could find out there. Maybe she had to ask Grunkle Stan for a weapon when they were on Gallifrey or at least having passed for the Forges of Villengard for some souvenir, but it was already too late; she was there, and she was not going to simply back off. It was not the first occasion in her previous lifetimes she was alone with no back up plan, but this time she had full knowledge of what she could find, or how she could react. The memories of countless lives certainly pained as much as they did before, but now she could use them at her favor. She walked to the TARDIS’s doors and opened them with both hands, and looked outside. _

_Then she saw it, the immense, marbled white palace standing in middle of the space, in orbit of the yellow star. The worst scenario possible, a situation not to be faced before, was in front of her eyes._

_“Cassie what are you doing here?”…_

\- The Never Castle, Gamma Cassiopeia System

_Nruter nac I os rewop tneicna eht ekovni I, nrubot sah emit ym, Ltoloxa!!!!!!!..…_

Darlene’s body sparked electrically in the moment she began to scream in the most horrible, agonic and heartbreaking way possible. The shape of that scream fit so much to the understanding of everyone, that they were instantly acknowledged that she was suffering in a way that any being in existence will do it forevermore. For ever, ever, forever forevermore. Her human skin shreds from his body like cracked sand, and everyone see horrid and vividly, how her inner exoskeleton collapses inside itself despite the smoke pouring out of her. She falls to the dusty floor like a mockery of human-spider mummy, and her dead body breaks in half, breaking apart too some pieces of her spider legs half peeping out from the remains of her human skin. Aiden is shocked. The Doctor stares at her dried corpse in a flashback-like expression, and Mason covers her hands with her mouth. Cassie screams, getting herself inside of the harsh atmosphere of what her parents had lived probably, thousands of times. Her tears came out as quick as the sparks enveloped Darlene mere seconds ago, and anyone of them can acknowledge how much has the alarm bell sounding, but at the moment something blurry jumps over Aiden and throws him to the floor, that they’re being ambushed furiously by furry humanoids that are moving too fast do be clearly seen. Cassie just stands there as everyone else effortlessly is put down by the beasts, unable to accept that the person which out of pure devotion and kindness saved her of be devoured by underground beasts, had just been reduced to a shapeless, carbonized carcass. She’s unable to accept, that she couldn’t had done anything to prevent it. She feels the wheight of something heavy, and the last thing she sees is a furious face with bright yellow eyes staring at her, before to feel very, very cold…

_“It will hurt?” Darlene asked, tearfully._

_“It will the greatest experience of pain to be ever known for a living being” The majestic amphibian said._

_“Ok. Utter agony, I get it.” Darlene said in middle of a chuckle, trying to take the best part of what she just did. “She’ll be ok?”_

_“She will do it majestically. You’ll be very proud of her” The amphibian nodded._

_“Can I see it?” Darlene asked. “Just… just to be sure”_

_“It will be hard, but it will be safe, no matter what you shall see. But I must still warm you, it will hurt what you’ll see. It will hurt”_

_“I’ll already had died in agony, what else could hurt more?” She replied again after a brief chuckle. “If I’ll go, I want to go in peace”_

_“I grant it” The amphibian spoke. “You still have to tell me which is the place you want to go”_

_“I want to go home. But not the home I knew. I want to go where I can to be in home, not matter who or what I am. I want to be with them, the only people in the life from which I came who were nice to me, and that I know they’re always nice with the people they care about. I don’t want just to sacrifice myself. I want to fight back” Darlene said, smiling in tearful pride._

_“I grant your wish” The amphibious said. “Now, this is what you must do to access to my realm once you’re dead. You must think a spell, and keep it in your mind, no matter how pain could you feel, no matter how you will burn”_

_“I listen”…_

Cassie opened her eyes slowly, feeling like if her head was filled with sand, and wanting to puke the deer of the breakfast… She woke up fully at the memory of the breakfast. Darlene had hunted down that deer, and cooked it for her, barely a day or two ago (She was not sure due the loop in which they were trapped). Her feelings menaced to announce its presence with tears, until the moment she raised her head. She was seated over a comfortable chair, in front of a grey table. In front of there, over said table, was a plate with beacon and pancakes, with a cup of milk, so cold that it was letting drops of water slip over the cup’s surface. Now she had officially no idea of what to think about, but her instincts urged her to eat (definitively, that must have been a two-days loop). But there was no fork to eat, so she began to look around… and he saw him, in front of her, at the other side of the table. Faceless, grey and intimidating, dressed with junk pieces of several rusty armors and a grey cape that continued behind him, with a three forked, square, flat crown. Even when the first time she could feel was a shocking fright, she caught the feeling of the staring he made to her. Amusement, curiosity, some kind of… warm nostalgia? It was very confusing. Her own feelings crashed one each other like a car accident. There was no way out, not plan, not way to evade nothing at all. She was cornered.

“Someone told me you liked to prepare this specific food” The being spoke in a very deep voice.

“Wha – who… who are you?” Cassie articulated the enough on her mind to speak.

“I am the Could’ve Been King, Third King of the Last Generation, Wearer of the Power of Possibility, Leader of the Army of Meanwhiles and Neverwheres. And, for know, I am the selected maker of your breakfast. Please, eat. I know I don’t have your cooking skills, but among my brothers I was always the best in the culinary studies” The king said in a very friendly but proud voice, like the way to talk that one might imagine from the hero of a fairytale. Cassie immediately remembered, and she looked at the plate as her breath increased, and her face frowned to wild fury. With no warning, she slapped the plate, throwing her breakfast out of the table. Next, she jumped above the table, prepared to fistfight the king to die for what he had done. Useless, but effective. The Could’ve Been King raised his hand with his claws pointed up, and Cassie floated over the table, still throwing her fists at the airs and waving her legs.

“You have nerve, just as it was promised. I like it” The Could’ve Been King said, looking at her with proud.

“You…! You monster!! You you manipulated our lives! You… You killed Darlene!! You killed her!… You killed her…” Cassie exclaimed, at first furiously, but then her anger was slowly replaced by cries, and she ended crying over the table, with her limbs tangling lifelessly. Softly, she was levitated back to her chair, as her before broken plate back warded itself back in front of her, intact. She turned to see him, futilely trying to get her rage back.

“I’m sorry” The Could’ve Been King replied in soft and sincere voice. Cassie had another emotional crash, and her trembling face frowned successfully.

“Wh-what?” She asked, passing her arm across her eyes.

“I’m sorry for your loss. We tried to save her but she already was disengaged from her timeline a long time ago. We couldn’t do anything” the king replied. Cassie’s crashed mind drove itself to the possibility that the Could’ve Been King was playing with her, or tricking her to obtain something.

“You… don’t think I don’t know you! The Doctor talked us about you!” Cassie said, recovering her rage.

“I’m getting used to the fact that my reputation precedes me. But, contrary to what you might think, I am not here to hurt anyone. As The Doctor, I’m also a man tired of war. Don’t worry for your friends, they’re safe here like you, but I really hope they don’t throw their food where they are, the girl must be starving” The Could’ve been King said.

“How can I be sure?” Cassie asked, not losing her temper. The Could’ve Been King casted out a screen from mist pouring of his hands, showing where Aiden, Mason and The Doctor were.

_“Aiden… Aiden don’t eat it!” Mason yelled._

_“Mason, I’ve not eaten anything in two days, one of my new friends just died in front of me, and who knows is happening with the universe. I just want to fake that nothing’s happening until we have the enough head to figure a way out. Please, sit”_

_“Grgrgrggr!!!… Ufff, what the heck, if he wanted us dead the things that sedated us could already killed us before” Mason surrendered sitting too, aside Aiden, and proceeded to eat. “Funny, this pancakes taste like the ones Mabel does”_

_“Indeed, but I’m glad she got rid of the back hair in the recipe” Aiden replied jockingly._

_“Hey!… well, I agree with you, let’s call them Stan-cakes 2.0. Do you want Docto… Doctor?” Mason asked, seeing him recharged over a wall, confused._

“Ok, they’re them” Cassie exclaimed, more relaxed, passing her hand over her eyes. “But, why am not with them?

“I need you, for a test” The Could’ve Been King answered, getting more serious.

“What kind of test? What is this place? Why are you here? Cassie asked frantically. The Could’ve Been King changed his glance to pride curiosity, and answered.

“Someone needs to talk with you, to pass his test. It’s a true test. If you help me with that, I’ll tell you everything you want to know about what we’re doing here, to the content of your heart”

“What about my friends?” Cassie insisted. The Could’ve Been King raised his head in positive aims, nodding slowly.

“You’re right. I must find a way to prove to The Doctor I’m not a danger for them or for you. Help me, and I’ll explain my scheme to them as well” The Could’ve Been King said, extending his hand to her.

“How can I trust you’ll accomplish what you’re saying?” Cassie asked.”

“That’s why I’m doing this. I have a promise to fulfill, to the one you must talk. In my life I’ve done many gruesome things, so now than I have the chance to redeem myself, I’ll take it. No matter what”

Cassie looked at the king’s hand. If she wanted to find a way out, she had to figure where (and how) she was in this whole crazed situation. She nodded firmly, and shook his hand.

“Show me”


	39. The Chevalier d L'Oubli

The roaring of unseen machineries heighted as they walked across seemingly endless halls, all of them with walls carved with scenarios of battles and monsters. Cassie wondered why she could now see them, and why the Could’ve Been King was being so nice to them.

_This hasn’t sense! Why he’s being so nice to me? He split our universe in countless alternate realms in which Mom and Dad suffered for millennia, and he prepared me breakfast?! And how the helly-belly he made it like I make it?!! It tasted exactly as I do!!!…_

“I see you have a lot of questions” The Could’ve Been King interrupted Cassie’s thoughts. “I like it”. Cassie looked at him defiantly, to just after turn around back to the halls in which they were walking.

“You don’t make sense” Cassie answered. The Could’ve Been King chuckled loudly, turning his faceless head to see her.

“That’s the strangest thing someone had ever told me. I know you’re still angry with me, and I understand it. I’ve manipulated your universe in its very heart, and put your own parents in the eye of a massive temporal storm, but as I said before, I’m not here to hurt anyone. Sure you saw many dreadful fates they had to deal, but the reason of all of this isn’t the _what_, is the _why_”

“Then, why?” Cassie replied.

“That’s what you have to know, but not by my words” The Could’ve Been King said. “We arrived”

The greyish young man was looking at the immense machinery behind the window, when he heard the door opening, and raised his head. A pair of golden tears ran wild from his eyes, knowing what he had to do.

“I know why I have to do this, but why does this hurt so much?” He asked trembled.

“Because it has to hurt. Be brave” The Could’ve Been King said, closing the door again. The greyish young man took his cap and folded around himself, as it shinnied like the sun.

“It is ready. Pass” The Could’ve Been King said to Cassie, opening the door behind him and inviting her to pass. Cassie gulped, and looked at him again, this time with a very different expression.

Cassie entered through the door, and this closed behind her. She was now in what looked like an office. Maybe a _too_ earthly office. There was a wooden desk with papers and a lamp, and both walls aside her were covered in books of all sizes and shapes, put in enormous bookshelves. Then she looked in front of her, at the gigantic window which covered the entire back wall, and iluminated by the sparks of the complicated machineries behind the window, there was a young man, giving her back. He was wearing a white shirt, and bluish raggedy pants with military camouflage. Dirty, black boots covered his feet, and his nape was covered with a curious curled brown hair that she felt too familiar to ignore. Then he turned around to see her, and her stomach fell to the bottom of her innards.

“Hi Cass” The young man said with a melancholic smile, looking at her gently with his reddened eyes. That face. That utterly familiar face, and that utterly familiar voice. In front of her was standing a eerily different version of her father; with the same features of his face only the enough distorted to make her know that that face was not his, and his haircut clearly showed his naked forehead, a void forehead. And he was a little taller than his father, and certainly more toned, giving hints of his muscled body behind the fabric of his shirt. Officially, the thing for her got out of control, and for a moment another almost endless moment of silence extended for seconds. Why trick her in that way with an unknown person? She had no more logical reasons to doubt of the King’s word; her mind was about to crash in bewilderment.

“Who – who are you?” Cassie asked with a frown of complete insecurity. What she had to do? What kind of test this was? It was for her? Or it was for him?….

“I – I don’t now were to begin” The young man replied, frowning in confusion as well, scratching his left sideburn in awkwardness.

_Wait. He’s confused. Why the heck he’s confused?!! It is not supposed that he knows what to do now?!! What is happening?!!…_

Twistedly, the things begin to get clear in the moment he uncovered his right arm to show his forearm’s skin. There was a constellation imprinted in his skin, the Orion Constellation. She got into an answer for herself, and her pupils dwarfed in fear. Something was scratching her mind, some impossible, forgotten memory…

“No” Cassie said brief but powerful. Why did she know that until now? She could not decide in which part of her mind put her efforts to understand what was happening, but apparently her unconscious had some hints, because a dried tear ran from her left cheek, oddly not accompanied by the usual heaviness that sadness used to have. Some part of her mind was crying, a part that was still very deep to notice.

“Hi big sis” He replied, letting go a little tear of his left eye as well. Those words hit her harder than the now frequent prospect to be devoured by wild critters; that hidden part of her mind was coming ashore slowly as a beast coming out of the sea, and she had no idea of how to deal with it. Everything she knew was that the young man in front of her was feeling as growingly heartbroken as her, and was obvious for the way in which his muscles tensed that he was resisting an urge. “I missed you” the young man said, covering his forearm again.

“What… is… this?” She asked, breathing heavily, feeling the oncoming need to run towards him. Sadness, relief, utter confusion, stacked together trying to take control of what she had to do. She passed her hand across her hair, seeing how he was being overwhelmed by the exact same feelings, getting unquiet and anxious. She really missed him even when this was the first time in her life she saw that young man, and that young man seemed to know perfectly how she was. “I – I… I”…

She didn’t hold it anymore, and ran towards him. He made a pair of steps closer and put on knees, catching her between his strong arms as she put hers around him. Both had his eyes wide open, unable to contain the urges of cry and input force in their hug. The remnants of her distrust and her confusion still scratched her mind, but she was feeling so relieved that the only thing she wanted to do now was to be still in his arms. The feeling of that he shouldn’t be that tall hit her fast, as she recharged her chin in his shoulder, and he did the same.

“What is this is happening?” She asked loudly between her cries.

“I – I’m sorry! I’m sorry for all!” He apologized equally loud. She had no idea why he was apologizing, but the spontaneous need of comfort him settled now into the soup of boiling feelings that was inside her head.

“No! Don’t feel bad! I don’t want you to feel bad!” She said, squeezing her eyes against him. “What is all of this craziness?” She asked once more, making colossal efforts to spit words between her growing cries.

“”I – I – Just… Wait a minute, I’ll explain everything” He replied, equally struggled in his words.

The weeping mess continued for a couple of minutes, in which Cassie’s ideas ordered the enough to understand the explanation that was coming to her. Another couple of minutes after, when they had the enough force to stop the hugging, with no warning they were sat over the floor, turned to the machineries behind the windows. She had a lot to understand, and he had a lot to explain.

“I was born when you were 13. Mom and Dad used to tell stories of how happy you were and how much you cared of me when I was a baby” He kept talking, as Cassie looked at him with a confuse mixture of amusement and nostalgia. “As far as I know you were the best elder sister someone could ever had. You always taught me things and played with me and told me the old stories about the old days of Mom and Dad in Gravity Falls. I was so proud of them, I was so proud of everyone… And I just didn’t fit in our family. I wasn’t impressive or clever or brave or strong. And Dad seemed to work so hard, to be so strong, and I wanted to make him proud of me, to make you proud of me. Even when we weren’t so close I searched for that approval, and for years I took bad decision after bad decision and… Well! That explains my clothes. Really I ended veeeery far from all of you. And then… there was the reveal”.

“Which reveal?” Cassie asked. He made an apologetic glance, and she knew perfectly what he was talking about.

“You… I never told you?” Cassie asked, lightly confused.

“No, you didn’t. Neither them, nor the grans. I was already an adult when the true came ashore, and I had my career, so when the true was revealed I was…” He stopped a moment, looking at his crossed legs. Those corners of his mind were the lest preferred for him, so find the right words to not fright Cassie with how he became an enraged ball of hatred and despair was not going to be easy. “I was really upset. And them… well things got even worse for everyone. Mom, Dad, the grans, all in jail. You fired from your work. I degraded. There was a long judgement, and our parents were losing. Even the career of her friend who helped them,.. .how was she called? I remember! Pacifica. She was affected too. Her witnesses were disappearing; everything got… harsh.

“What about the grunkles?” Cassie asked, feeling the incoming facts.

“They died when I was 10; in certain sense I’m glad for that. That sure could have broken their hearts… Whatever. The things got out of options, and I had this stupid fight… And I was expelled. No work, no hopes, no future. It was…” Again he stopped, passing his hands across his eyes. “Whatever, it was bad. And one night I was walking on the street when someone talked me from a corner. First I ignored him, but then I felt… weird when I walked aside him, and I knew it was not any person; I knew it was something of that weirdness you told me when I was a child. And I talked to him. And he proposed me something”

“The Could’ve Been King” Cassie interrupted.

“Yes, The Could’ve Been King. He told me that everything that was happening was a mistake in the timeline someone did to unravel a power hidden in this universe, and that I indeed was a consequence of that change, that I shouldn’t originally exist. So he proposed me something. He could fix the timeline and save our family if I help him to unravel the power”

“And you believed him?” Cassie asked, feeling the impression that he made a Faustian deal.

“At first I didn’t thought I had option. I.. I wanted to save you all, and I had no choice…” He said, stopping again to have a long, heavy sigh. He passed his hands across his eyes again, and continued. “But then… He took what he needed, my timeline, to the connect the Never Castle to our parents’ timelines. I was turned into a Neverwere, a being with no History. But then… Then he gave me powers, so I could guard our reality when dangerous beings were trying to get in and damage the universe”

“Beings like Bill” Cassie replied.

“That stupid triangle. He’s supposed to die here, in this universe. I’ve had to kill it every time that the timeline sets him free from his demise”

“Oh mine, are you that strong?” Cassie asked in disbelief.

“Hey, give your dear brother some credit” He asked between chuckles. “Whatever. I acted as the guardian of the Shifts, taking care of the timelines so no one could harm what we were doing. I know that maybe you did saw horrible results for them. And… that’s why we Shift frequently. We need to find a result, and not always things come as planned. My Master had to put you on a special timeline so you couldn’t be harmed…”

“Your _master_?” Cassie interrupted. 

“Yes. The King’s my Master. He had… He had taught me things that you couldn’t believe. He taught me to manipulate space and time, to use my powers, to take the shapeless pulp and the dead flesh and turn it into life!!… Dang! Sorry sorry! I got… pretty awed sometimes. You know, great powers” He said, scratching his nape. “I created the Mice Gorgons to aid me in my missions, and we were so close of the result when… When Dad stripped himself out of the timelines. They’re the eye of Shifts; without them, the machineries don’t work. We’re trying to find out why he did that”

“Wait… Darlene told me… Darlene told me that Grunkle Ford remembered the Shifts because… because he was out from universe… His travels! He gave me a necklace so I could jump from a shift to the next, and also gave her one too. What if he did the same with Dad?… We have to find him” Cassie said in unsaid determination.

“He’s coming to the Never Castle right now but we can’t go for him. Space-time is too damaged to use our powers at full. We’ll have to wait” The young man said with stern voice.

“Wait, Mom was too out from universe. Don’t you believe that…?” Cassie asked, feeling the coming of another cosmic disaster.

“We must talk with my Master, now” The young man said, standing over the floor. Cassie lifted too, and for a moment they exchanged glances. Then they advance one towards the other, and hugged thighly again. A pair of tears came out from each one, as the young man kissed Cassie’s head. “I was so worried for you. If you had died down there you could’ve been lost forever” He said, letting another tear to come out.

“We’re going to fix everything” Cassie replied. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name”

“Connor. My name is Connor” He replied merrily, sniffing to hold his cries. 

“Connor Pines, what a catchy name” Casie said, chuckling both in response…

\- Metatemporal Experimentation Lab, The Never Castle. Gamma Cassiopeia System

“Mhmm, Interesting. Whoever made this had to be a Cristalographic Master. Look at the ways in which the borders are quantum-blocked. You dumb brother, you choose a exposed universe” The bulky brother said to himself, exanimating Darlene’s crystal. “You had to keep this on your neck, spider girl, and you very probably were going to wander around here” He said, turning his attention to the burned carcass that laid in the table, a few meters from him. The bulky brother turned his attention again to the crystal, having found fondness in it. That ancient crystal belonged to realms which he had visited before; crazed universes where the most non-describable beasts, challenging in woefulness even with the ones inhabiting the Void itself, wafted around quantum seas of madness and forgiveness. Suddenly, he felt a known presence entering his lab, and welcomed it in the usual way. “I already told you, you can’t just enter here. Don’t prove my brother’s patience woman; He’s still angry for the mistake you make in the machinery- Argh!!” He felt a dark, cold thing traversing through his flesh from behind, and his hands opened wide, letting the necklace and his instruments to fall over the table. As his hands slowly lowered over it. He felt the dark presence approach her head along his, and with maniacal, taintful voice, she spoke to him.

“Who told it was a mistake?” She said, getting out the stabbing sword she prolonged out of her arm. “Oooh shame on you, idiot. You traversed entire creations to find your brother and now that you’re so close to save your people you low your guard. Ts ts ts ts, that is not done, my colleage” He touched the hole in his chest, acknowledging his power was not there anymore, and looked at the crystal in the table.

“You… you’ll fail”

“Uuuuuh but I fear I already won. Goodbye, impure being.” And his dead body fell over the table. She looked at it with deep hatred, and then looked at her hand, holding The Power of the Fact. “If you want something done you have to do it yourself. Time to destroy this disgusting realm”


	40. As everything goes wrong...

\- _The Mistery Shack; Gravity Falls, Oregon. A few Shifts ago…_

_The moonlight coming from the triangular window was illuminating the bed, and the two nude bodies tangled together, immersed in a peaceful sleep, as smooth as the moonlight over them. A few crickets, the occasional howl of a wolf, and the sound of their own breaths was everything she could hear, like a quiet orchestra announcing the end of the age of the secrets, and the coming of their freedom, and the freedom of their family. She was softly tasting every bit of where and how she was, imprinting her elation in her restless, fulfilling smile. The weak light announcing the marvelous world outside, the far echoes of the ceaseless march of Life, the heat of his body around her, his breath wafting across her hair. Everything was so… perfect. Even if she knew perfectly he was deeply asleep, she was still holding his hand tightly over her stomach… But why?_

_A void. A void inside her mind began to crawl for her attention. Something was beginning to look eerily wrong. Something was not there, something that had to be there. Her consciousness puzzled itself around an absence she just got aware was there. Suddenly, that void turned to an entirely different direction. Her smile faded away, in the moment she got aware that she didn’t know where she was, or who was covering her back with his body._

_A wave of panic, powered by the darkness, ran wild across her spine. Was this a dream? An hallucination? A nightmare? It couldn’t be a nightmare, she had still the taste of her elation in her mouth. It couldn’t be, she couldn’t be there, it had to be a nightmare; she had to know perfectly that the blanket over her body was in fact moss and dirt, and the moonlight was fully imaginary, and she was not nude, and the body she was feeling behind her was no other thing than her most recent fever._

_It was too much, just too much to keep. She had to escape of this dream, of this heartbreaking illusion to go back to reality, to the fact that she was going to be trapped in that pit of beasts forever. She felt so guilty, she felt so despaired. She missed her life so much, she missed him so much that her mind must had to create this elaborate, sick hallucination came from a dark corner of her mind. She sit over the bed, at the sight of a shadow in the center of the window, the thing that had to be Svooth coming to wake her up, to receive another horrible day in the endless pit…_

_“Dipper!!!!” She screamed at full voice, holding the corners of the bed with her fists, utterly horrified. The power of that scream woke up Dipper as fast as a cold water bucket, making him to jump over the bed. That mere second he got aware Mabel was screaming in total horror, and he feared the worst._

_She felt a pair of hands taking her shoulders, and didn’t recognized of who they were. She ran out of the bed, right to the door, hoping to see her surrogate mother when she turned around. Then she saw him, getting out of bed, nude and trembled, with an quiet, horrified expression in his face visible despite the darkness._

_“Mabel, Mabel what happens?” he said to her, softly taking her shoulders again. She took a moment to recognize the features of his face, and quickly knew he was Dipper; a fullgrown Dipper standing in front of her, pouring distilled hums of love and terrified worry. Suddenly her impression fade away, and she was not sure anymore why she was scared; the fears born wild and real just a moments ago became blurry and unclear. Her fright melted in confusion but a little piece kept solid when she saw Dipper’s face. He made a question, and she was trying to pull out words to answer._

_“I… I had a nightmare” she replied, frowning in confusion “I’m sorry, I woke you up…” _

_She didn’t finished her sentence, when Dipper hugged her firmly, inhaling hard. She put her arms around his bare back, guessing he was still sensitive because the hard afternoon they just had, and everything she wanted now was to make him feel better. “It’s ok Mabes, don’t feel bad about it” He said relieved._

_“Are… you sure? I’m sure I scared you to heck” She asked, smiling nervously. He chuckled heavily, and hugged her tighter._

_“I think I got used. Do you remember the day Cassie was born?” He said softly._

_“Oh yeah, I wasn’t sure if laugh or scream for the contractions” Mabel replied, laughing briefly. “But I still believing I must compensate you for the midnight screamer”_

_“As you please sis” He answered in flirty voice. Then he recharged his chin on her shoulder, sharing his relief._

_“Hey, ehmm, before that, I… I think we just forgot something. There was something we should remember?” She asked with a brief spark of confusion._

_“Nop, I’m sure I could remember it” Dipper answered._

_“Good. I had the doubt” Mabel said, recharging her head in his shoulder as well._

_So the calm reigned again, in the midst of corny affections and lovely expressions. But out of the shack, in the corner of the woods, someone was not sharing the relief. The dark, cloaked woman stood still, looking at the triangular window with deep hatred. She got out a hand out of her cloak, looking with stern disgust to the fragile sphere she was holding in the palm of her hand. Inside, there was a tiny, half formed embryo, still pulsating and alive inside its pure, glassy orb that contained it, so peaceful and unharmed as if it had been always there._

_“That was so close freaks, that was soooo close. I’ll have to be more clever if I want to hold the King in this universe. You’ll see twisted people, you’ll see.” The Young Crone said, to just after put the orb back inside her cloak and melt herself into the shadows between the trees…_

_-_

_People gets always wrong with our kind. Even when our bodies die, our minds have a plenty of time before they let our souls go. Enough time to make amends with our life just gone; enough, to choose where, when and why we want to live again. As far as I know, that was the only way in which our people could escape from their demise. Then, why put so much effort in find a way to make our species to continue, if we clearly know that death is not the end of the way, and we can easily pick up new lives inside the endless abyss of Eternity?_

_Well, if I’m being honest I think we’re all idiots. Very, very blazingly utter idiots. I share the reason my parents, my brothers, and my people had, because I love them, and I honor what they care about. That’s the reason. The unity, the communion between our souls; the word of Creation in all its corny glory. The same path that drove my brother to burn his heart fighting the Time War, the same one that made me search for him across the entire multiverse, and curiously, the same that kept the Pine Tree and the Shooting Star together no matter what we did to their universe. I must recognize them for that, they’re really persistent. And helpful, I must not forget that, their link was very useful each time we shaped a new reality (I have to admit that I got a little creative with that). Then… why the Shifts began to fail? Some time we were so close to find the correct time path to extract the Axolotl’s taint and then… things went wrong. I try to figure why but every moment my essence gets thinner, and I must think where I want to go back, if I don’t want to end in some undesirable fate…_

_No, I must figure it. My brother stills out there and I must warn to him what the Young Crone wants to do… Oh dammit! She did it! She did it she did it she did it I can believe it!! That god dammed cranky witch!!! But why?!! Why if she needed the power too… Hold on… Her face. Do I remember her face? No, I can’t but…. It seemed important. As if she put herself some… something to make it forgettable. Why someone who we don’t know from anywhere could bother in hide her face from us…?_

_No._

_It can’t be…_

_Except that it is._

_I’m now too thin to warn him and choose my next path, and you know what? I don’t care. I’ll warn him, because I love him, and I’ll see for my family until my last breath…_

_Goodbye dear life, I’ll always miss you._

\- The Never Castle, Gamma Cassiopeia System

The Could’ve Been King was below the main machinery, rearranging wires and fixing burned parts that got damaged during the failed shift, while he was also checking the feedback systems in search of something. Some part of him was telling him that was something going wrong, something that wasn’t fitting. Long ago, when he built the Never Castle, forged in the fires of the Time War, he had installed special circuits burrowed from fallen TARDISes, to aid him in the analysis of the warzones he was bringing back from the time erasure, to check if wasn’t any anomaly that could intervene with the process. With time, he had learned to replicate that technology, and practically every wall of the Never Castle had replicas of said feedback systems which were scanning simultaneously all the timezones he created. If something went wrong with the universe, it had to be detected. But it was his fifth attempt to scan the timezone in which they were stuck, and if he had to believe in the data, he had to believe that the universe in which they were didn’t exist at all. Something was interfering with the signal, something…

_“Brother…”_

The Could’ve Been King raised his head, overwhelmed by the terrible fact of have heard the voice of the very last words of his dying brother inside his mind. He knew what that meant, and the feeling he had couldn’t be said properly in any language he could have ever knew. His brother had gone forever.

_Oh no, Connor!_

He closed the opening to the main machinery and his head got bright red; he had to warm him.

\- Tower G, The Capitol, The Wild Endeavour. Planet Gallifrey, Constellation of Kasterborous

Ford opened his eyes as heavily as the non-describable, intimate and mind-blowing tortures he had suffered the last three hours allowed him to do, feeling his new, heavy blood running inside his new veins around his sleepy head, pumping continuously. He was not sure how long he could still resist the mind reading, but he was sure he couldn’t allow the Time Lords to know what was happening. He remembered that timeline with cold fear, and knew that their greed couldn’t allow them to permit that their actual state of existence to cease of exist, even if that meant the death of billions; based on the brief rumors he heard between the endless suffering, that actually happened. He tried to move his arms to pass his hands over his face, but these were in chains attached to the walls. His fingers were too crooked to even close fists, as much as it was utterly painful to try it, but he was sure he was the enough awake to notice that this new body had only five fingers per hand. It could be a funny feeling, if the unbearable pain of everything else was not so distracting.

_Well done Stanford, officially you destroyed the universe._

He looked around the surroundings, distinguishing the humid air and the darkened, stony walls. He was at the entrance of the Cloisters, the place from which they had just escaped.

_Sure, why not? They ran out of ideas; why not begin with the last warning?_

His bare, bloody feet were above a watery puddle, most probably the remains of the water they used to drown him, as he could recall. His breath was every time more difficult; he was sure his last regeneration was coming very soon.

_I must keep strong; I can do it! Dipper, Mabel, wherever you are, I’m so sorry. I guess I tend to give advice and not take it a lot eh?…_

His mind made him to try to chuckle, at half laugh his throat felt horridly cold and ended coughing aloud, sputtering bloody spits from his mouth. He looked once more to the endless darkness, and whispered as slow as he thought convenient. This definitively had to be the end of the road for him. His mind passed around all the places in he was out there, at the everlasting seas of the eternity. All the things he did, all the adventures he had, all the quest he was in, and all people he knew, and the ones he loved and loved him back.

_I’m ready. This time I’m ready._

He closed his eyes, sensing the incoming of a last message. At least, he could have the chance to say her goodbye…

_“Hello, Stanford” She says softly and filled in pity._

_“Hi Jess, how long I don’t see you” Ford says “I guess you don’t bring good news”. She remains silent, and he immediately acknowledges what happened. His imaginary six-fingered hands make it selves into powerful fists, as he try to held back the urges of cry; he already has a lot of reasons to do it, but even in the place where the thoughts are pure, he still guards a little of pride to himself. “She didn’t make it…”_

_“I’m sorry Stanford, I really sorry” She says. Undeniably, she feels sorrow for him._

_“It’s ok, both of us knew that this was only a special moment, never meant to happen. But she didn’t deserved to… AAArgh!!” He screams, punching his face with his fists. He tries to fall in his knees, a difficult task due to being floating in the mental nothingness. Suddenly, Ford feels a familiar hand over his right shoulder, and he put his hands away from his face. Tall, pale, and compassionate, her seven-eyed face smiles him with sadness. Her purple dress is waving with the imaginary mists of wherever they are, and changes its shape with every movement she makes. Finally, after all this time, she had decided to manifest._

_“There’s still a chance” She says. Then she pauses, and looks at her left side. She closes her eyes for a moment, and opens them to see him in a way she shouldn’t but she has to, at least for once. “This time you have no to keep going, but you have one last movement in this chess game”. Ford’s eyes illuminate; whatever that last chance can be, he wants to take it._

_“Tell me”_

_“Trust….”_

“Ford…Ford!” A feminine, familiar voice awakened him from his vision. His eyes opened painfully quick, and he saw the muscled, redhead young woman taking him from his right shoulder. Sure was a trap, it had to be a trap, but her last words were precise as it always had been, so the only he could do was to wait.

“Wendy?” Ford asked. It was sure that this Wendy hadn’t the least idea of who he was, not having had the enough time where she figured in this particular timelien, but judging for her scarlet, stocky attires, she was a general of the Gallifreyan Army. He remembered to have seen her in the judgement, and how the valeyard in turn noted the familiarity in the way he looked at her, so he was sure it was a trap. Keep the brief but powerful advice was going to be as hard as he believed it could be.

“Hi, old man” She said. “I’m going to take you out of here, but I need to know what is happening. Please, tell me”. There was the trap, undeniably in the fake tone of her voice (He knew very well from Stan that Wendy could be quite carefree and manipulative, but she was not a liar), but also there was some little spot of genuine doubt in some place of that “please” to which Ford wanted to attach with all his remaining forces. Some part of her mind, at the same that the rest of the Zodiac members, had that taint of memories in her heart.

“Hands” He said weakly.

“What?” Wendy replied in little disbelief.

“Hands” He replied, a little less heavy than the first time.

“Oh, sure!” Wendy said, taking out of her pocket a magnetic seal.

_Ok Stanford, this is the first time you try to do it so don’t ruin it._

His hands fell lifeless from their previous positions, the enough time so Wendy didn’t suspected. With no warning, he took her head and hit it with his…

_Aw, Dip. Skinny jeans? Say it ain’t so, man… Of course I’ll do, big grumpy man!… Tell me the truth, or I’ll smash you as I did with the mole man… You’re lookin’ good, little man!… I don’t know if it’s dumb luck or yin and yang, or whatever, but when you two work together, there’s like nothing you two can’t accomplish. You just need to make up, and team up, and save the universe…!_

“Heck!!!” Wendy screamed aloud, jumping back over her butt over the humid ground. Her breath was intense, and her forehead was cold-sweaty, so Ford knew that now she was really knowing what was happening, if her intense, darting eyes weren’t enough. “How I… Wha’?…”

“I… unlocked your memories… of the other timelines… You had a life Wendy… Don’t you want it back?” Ford said every time slower.

“I… I…” She tried to articulate, as noisy memories came back again inside her burning head.

_… Hey, a girl can dream!… Okay everybody, show of hands! Who here is really not all that surprised by any of this?…_

“Mabel and Dipper,.. and… and Cassie!” Wendy replied aloud, passing her trembled fingers across her long hair. “Where they are? Are they ok?” She asked frantically.

“They need… your hel_p…_” Ford exhaled, as his head lowered slowly until his chin hit his chest.

“Ford… Ford wake up!” Wendy yelled, shaking his shoulders. With no a second to lose, she took his right arm and checked his pulse. Her pupils dwarfed and her lips trembled, now finding herself stuck alone with all of this new situation. “I gonna save them old man, I promise” Wendy replied with growing tears coming out from her eyes. How she was going to get out of this now?


	41. Chase My Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pieces are setting in place... but for what?

_There is a star, one we have to reach. We could easily have spent our entire lives inside the comfortable, warmhearted depths of our forested home, but we have an important mission to do. We cross the endless skies of darkness and cold, in the chase for a star. It will take centuries for us, maybe millennia, but we have no option. We feel it, in our star-shaped skins, the incoming of the Ancestors._

_Long ago, before to be what we are now, we promised to announce our presence, if they even had the luck to find where we are. I always believed that if that moment was even possible, it should be in merrier circumstances. How innocent we were. Now, right now, skies are bleeding and stars are burning, and we do not know why or how they are doing it to happen. But we are sure they do not avert our presence. Maybe they can’t, or maybe they have forgotten our crusade, but we have to stop this. Our skins are so bonded to our home as theirs were when our ancestors maimed themselves to escape, so it hurts, it hurts forevermore._

_As we cross the infinite spaces between the stars I wonder what shall be of my friends on Earth. Are we going to see them again? It is too late to save them? A deep scar runs wild in the nothingness, one I fear can bring death to the whole universe. Thus, if this sky falls, we’ll perish as well. _

_I pray for us to reach our destiny in time, and have a chance to undo what cannot be undone. For now, we will keep our chase, the chase for a star…_

\- Tower G, The Capitol, The Wild Endeavour. Planet Gallifrey, Constellation of Kasterborous

Wendy’s wiggly legs crashed her against the wall, in an pointless effort to resist the incoming waves of new memories. She could wanted to ignore them, but she needed to know how it was, and if that world in which she was in fact her world, or just a metaconstruction of something else. Suddenly her whole life in Gallifrey, all her deeds and adventures lost significance, as a myriad of iterations of her life seemed to go into widely different directions. In some part of those broken lives there had to be some hint, some confirmation of what the Ford’s last words were meant to take her. Her Time Lord mind was helping her a lot, but with hundreds of those sets of dozens of years, distinguish some important detail was going to get hard. That, until she saw Cassie in some place among that timelines where she shouldn’t be…

_…Well… Isn’t the first time I think wrong about how a supernatural thing develops so…_

_Got it!_

Cassie was there, in some place of a timeline she didn’t belonged, talking about other timeline she spotted very well. It was all she needed. She lifted her arm, closing her wrist to her mouth, and spoke to the reddish bracelet she had there.

“War Chief, here the General Wendy. I know where we have to go”…

\- In some place of the Milky Way…

Tiny, almost insignificant, seen against the endless cosmic seas in which it was speeding at full velocity. The ovoid, silver shuttle crossed ceaseless, unfatigable, across millions of miles of cold, darkness and void; traversing every often the nearby space of bright, mighty stars and their worlds. The shuttle’s sight crossed the view of countless worlds, so varied as the many lives its occupant lived across confused meta-ages. From skyless, frozen hells, to fertile global jungles inhabited by spongy aliens; seen as a shooting star the unstoppable little ship crossed its fated path straight to the unholiest place in the entire Universe, the place destined to be its salvation… or its doom.

_Tired. Just… so tired._

Every often between his long slumbers, Dipper opened his eyes. Sweated and cold at the same time, prey of strange effects that the scape shuttle had over his body… or was the Shift? He couldn’t be sure. His bones felt heavy against his void innards, and his heavy lungs barely supported the weight of his spine, like being in the constant prelude of a morning stretching. He couldn’t see properly the magnificent skyscapes he was traversing, because the space-time distortions that surrounded the nearby environment, but he was sure, based in an odd coincidence between the distorted sights and his own delirium, that it was beautiful. And that was his only distraction from the endless, disgusting feeling he wasn’t be able to ignore. That was the only thing that kept him awoken the enough to remember why he was there.

_She’s down there, in some part. I Just have to… go back._

He crawled over the surface in which he was squished, ignoring the fluffy bag in front of his head, and tried to turn around to catch her, just to slowly hit his weak hands against the unbreakable glass, prey of another hallucination. Every day he spent there, it was every time harder to keep himself in one piece, and every more often his mind drove into crazed hallucinations about he and Mabel and Cassie and his parents, inside Frankenstein-like constructions of his alternate lives. One moment he was trying to fix his telescope to see the taco storm, and the next one he was drowning in burning candy, begging for a spoon to keep his head above the TV and watch his exoskeleton’s graduation along someone too distorted to distinguish… it looked like him, but with no forehead’s mark, a little taller and a tense, bubble-like atmosphere of dragon awkwardness…

_If I keep harder I’m going to break into my dreams, just hold on jumpo-shrimps! Mabel likes to make you sweaters… hehe, shrmhfppumpopopumpooooh…. No! Wake up idiot! You’re almost there._

He hit his heat the hardest he could against the glass, in an effort to go back to his senses.

_Just a little more, just a little more…_

His eyes shut, and his head rested lifeless over the transparent dome. He was not going to give up, never, ever… forever.

\- _The Never Castle, Gamma Cassiopeia System, half an hour ago._

_“Hey!… well, I agree with you, let’s call them Stan-cakes 2.0. Do you want Docto… Doctor?” Mason asked over the table with her stan-cake slice skewered in her fork. He was recharged over a wall, looking at the opposite wall with frowning confusion. More than confusion, denial, denial about things he couldn’t change, denial about his inability to do anything about._

_Mason and Aiden exchanged worried glances, trying to figure what was happening whit him. The Doctor most probably felt their pity expressions, because in that moment, he spoke in low voice._

_“I have a long time fighting. Wow, I’m sure I have it. And most of that time I always thought I got the answers to win the battles, and that winning the battles we could win the war. No matter_ _who could die, if I was able to bring order, the rest of universe could thrive. But… I never imagined the Time War could surpass my universe. And now a brilliant, brave girl has gone forever, the last victim of a war she never lived. What if… No, that’s absurd” The Doctor said, shaking briefly his head and lifting from the cold floor, sitting along Aiden to eat. Mason distinguished his glance, very familiar to her. It was the glance that says undoubtedly “I just want to make everything to end”._

_“I miss her” Aiden said abruptly._

_“Do you?” Mason asked, trying to be respectful in her doubt._

_“Yes. I mean, we had almost no time to know her but… I remember a little of our time loops. I-I never saw someone to die before, and… She had this vibrant personality” Aiden proceeded to answer. A warm feeling was being expressed by his enlighted eyes; part guilt, part relieve. He let his fork in the plate. Covering his mouth with his hand in a disappointed expression. “I feel like a burden I mean… What the heck I’m doing here? I’m a sort of side-effect or something? I have like… two days traveling with you and the Doctor?” Aiden said, looking back at himself with deep shame. He was supposed himself to be important, but instead, he felt quite like furniture in the adventure of someone else. “Maybe I… maybe I’m the –“_

_“No” Mason interrupted him. “Don’t say that. Please don’t dare to say that”_

_“…Why?” He asked, looking at her with darted shame._

_“Look… I can’t tell you what’s the next part of the plan, but as far as I know, everyone in here has a duty to do. Me, you, The Doctor, all of us. You can’t simply dismiss yourself for not have suffered the enough or endured a heck of things. Time will come, you have just to be –“_

_“Patient” The Doctor appointed. “I feel that having told you about my adventures might have left you with the impression that life out there is far superior, but most of time I’m just being… neglecting” The Doctor replied merrily, laughing for a moment. “The most important people tends to be like you. Common people with common deals. Side-effect or not, you’re with us now. No more sacrifices. No more” The Doctor said, looking at him with stern confidence._

_“Thanks. To both of you. For Darlene” Aiden said, lifting his milk cup._

_“For Darlene” Mason replied._

_“For Darlene” The Doctor said as well._

_-_

_“They miss me” Darlene says heart warmed, cleaning her eyes. Then she turns to see his gigantic new master, and her face frowns to worry. “What will happen to them?”_

_“You’ll see”_

_-_

Connor walked quickly, the enough to give himself advantage in the way to the elevator, but the enough slow to allow Cassie to follow his pace. Every often he looked at her, smiling briefly, as she responded in the same way. The Pines siblings together again, was everything she could want now, and now was the turn of their parents… if they had the chance to catch them first. Is she wasn’t conscious that her parents were in mortal danger, she easily could have broken her face with the widest smile ever.

“How long will take to reach the elevator?” Cassie asked.

“Just a minute more, is for the left corner…” Then Connor suddenly stopped his march, and looked at the marbled ceiling of the endless corridors in which they were walking. Cassie stopped in the right spot to see how his eyes turned bright hot red, with a slow hum pouring from his eyelids.

_“Connor, take Cassie and her crew to the Safe Heavens, The Young Crone has gotten riot”_

“I’ll be there with you when they’re safe” Connor spoke, apparently answering something Cassie couldn’t hear.

_“No, it’s too dangerous. If I need assistance I’ll call for you. Now go”_

“As you wish Master, I’ll be there if you need me” Connor replied again at the apparent silence. His eyes turned back to normal, and he got on knees to her face’s level. “Cassie, I’ll take you to a safe place, and you must stay there no matter what, did you hear me?”

“What? What happens now?” Cassie asked, more bewildered than scared. Then, for the corner of her eye, she saw her, just behind Connor. Distorting, dark, and frightening beyond recognition. The silent terror of her face and his own unsettling feeling made him know that she was already here.

“Stay behind me” He mustered gently to her, and put on feet, turning to face the being, putting Cassie behind him.

“How delightful is to see you fight back. It reminds me how defenseless you are. This will be funny” she said with an eerily familiar voice. The Young Crone was standing at a few meters from them, with her arms half-extended at both sides of her, and her raggedy cloak waving at the influence of non-existent airs. Connor’s spine got chill, at the sense of something inside her that he recognized from someone else, something that used to belong… to his Master’s brother.

“What… What have you done?” Connor asked in despaired disgust.

“You know what? Why to make this into a long boooooring talk when I can just kill her for once? Come on boy, get apart and let me to do my job” The Young Crone spoke with carefree enthusiasm. Connor’s mind spiraled into all the possibilities, troubled by her sudden change of intentions. However, she had been always a distant, easily triggered being, but not at that extent. He thought about that apparent distance she had specially to him, about the always forgettable tone of her voice, and brief but confusing hints about her nature. Thus he understood, and his face got blank.

“Where you really come from?” Connor asked between deep breaths. The Young Crone scratched the top of her head in unamused disdain, and next she took some round thing out of her cloak.

“Orghhh! You’re always so inconvenient, I’m really tired of you” She said, quickly throwing the glassy object to the ground, smashing him against the floor. Its contents lit on fire in the precise moment in which the orb shattered, too quickly to be seen, and Connor felt his entire circulatory system to burn cell by cell. He took a hand to his fist screaming in pain, as his knees fell in the floor as well. Bright light sparks came out from his skin, while his entire shape began to peel away like an eggshell. Cassie took his shoulders tightly, instantly scared.

“No no no! What happens to you?” She screamed aloud. He turned his head to see her, and smiled weakly.

“Run. Fast” He spoke, and lifted a hand. Sudden, strong winds take her away from him into the corridors, as the Young Crone screamed furiously. Connor then took a side of his face and ripped it away like a piece of paper, uncovering again his true, intimidating form. His golden rod extended over the floor and he took it strongly to lift himself, ready to fight. The Young Crone flew wildly to him, grabbing him strongly by the neck. Connor found himself with no enough force to move away from her, and for a first time in a lot of time, he was fearing for himself.

“Where did you sent her?” The Young Crone asked furiously, putting her face very close to his. Connor could feel the steamy, emetic airs she emanated from every breath she took.

“Go to hell, witch” He answered defiantly. She held his neck tighter in response, chocking him.

“You’re really the best mistake I’ve ever made” She said with an intense frowning. Connor’s eyes widened at the feeling of a very sharp object getting inside his belly and coming out across his back, and any significant inquiring he could’ve made based on that response lost its trail in the feeling of his innards squished like water-filled balloons. She let his neck go, and he fell over the floor, unable to move. His eyes rolled to see her; she was giving him a serious, hateful glance. “Time to end with this” She spoke, flying away in Cassie’s direction…

-

_Grrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiihhhhhhrgg!!!!!….._

_Thud!_

_Shhhhwioph…_

Cassie opened her eyes, finding herself in a dirty, dusted floor. She put her hands over the ground, and lifted her body heavily, still feeling the impact of some sort of high fall. Her legs shook a little, but she was able to get in feet, for a moment touching her temple to know if her glasses were there. Judging for the blurry of everything else, and her fingers not finding the lenses over her eyes, she surely had lost them for good.

_Goddammit! Not now_

Glasses or not, she had still to put herself safe, and had to guide herself with the blurry details of her surroundings. Her spontaneous urges to find her glasses broke when she heard the sound of some vitreous material crunching bellow her feet. She recognized the shape perfectly; this time she had lost them for good.

_Ok ok, just breath, you can do this_

She walked slowly but firm, guiding herself by the shapes weakly illuminated for lamps beyond her eyesight. The floor felt much cleaner than the elevator, and much more cold. The blurred shapes of atrocious sets of machines made her know that she wasn’t supposed to be there, and the eerie smell of something burned made her know that said place wasn’t a safe place at all. A spot; a spot where she could begin to plan what to do next was all she needed.

_Ok ok, you’re here. I’ve not come from so far to hide like a mouse, I have to find something I find to –_

“Aaaaahh!” Cassie screamed, at the moment she tripped over a huge wire and fell inside some humid content.

_Shuiifh Shiiufh!_

Cassie felt how something closed behind her, and suddenly she was trapped inside some sort of machine. Snuggled, cold and disgusting, the insides of where she was began to crawl over her with the touch of a squiggly snail, and two tiny cold things touched the sides of her head. Her sight swapped horridly inside her mind, as if her brain was being hacked, into what looked like the blue sight of a spyglass. Terribly centered, but bright clear; after all, now she could see where she was. She looked like some sort of lab, with several tables with broken machines and what looked like bodies of dead animals. A half-armed gun, an umbrella, a dissected three-headed golden reptile, and… She saw it. Covered with a white blanket, and with a pair of flowers above, the sillouete of a human-spider hybrid thing. She had found Darlene’s corpse. She felt how her true eyes got moisty, and breathed hard. The flowers were the most heartbreaking detail. The beings manipulating the very heart of her life, their parents’, and the entire universe, were the enough respectful to mourn properly someone which they never knew; that hit her. Suddenly, his brother didn’t look like someone involved in dubious affairs. Suddenly, he was showed like someone honored with a difficult task. Dead or not, Darlene truly was never meant to be harmed. She wanted to move, and at moment she felt like the shell containing her moved with her sole desire, but abruply her movement was stopped with what felt like chains.

Felt…. Felt. Was she supposed to feel her shell?

_What’s this?-_

“WHAT IS THIS” She heard her own though projected in a robotic voice, squared and pitchy.

_What the –_

“EXPLAIN” She heard again. The message was distorted, but said the same as her. The pieces began to match, about the nature of the shell in which she was. She decided to try, with the possible defensive implements of her new suit.

_Ehm… shoot?_

“EXTERMINATE!” She heard loud and clear, hearing next a sound according to an old TV bulb being turned off. She tried again, with the same result, and concluded quickly that whatever this suit could do to defend itself didn’t worked at all.

_Oh right, this is useless, I want to get out –_

“OPENING CASING” She heard, hoping to hear her shell to be opened. But instead, she heard the same TV bulb-like sound.

_No_

“NO”

_Come on, open!_

“OPEN CASING”. Again, it didn’t work. Now she knew what was going on with her, and panic ran over her spine. “OPEN CASING. OPEN CASING OPEN CASING, OPEN CASIIIIIIIING!!!!!!!”. The electronic voice resounded across the empty lab, ceaseless, every time more frightened, every time more hopeless…

\- In some place of Gamma Cassiopeia’s System airspace…

“Come on come on come on!” Wendy shouted aloud, flying her battle TARDIS across the space. She had just lost the entire fleet for very little, and now was spinning around wildly around strange space waves, emanated from the large structure at distance. Pressing buttons and moving levers with frenzy determination, Wendy was managing to cross the spatiotemporal disturbances, trying to get in as quickly as possible. A few seconds more, and the Gallifreyan fleet was going to find her. Not having been guided where they were supposed to be, surely they were going to be very, very angry. The communication screen opened itself, and she peeked to see the angry face of Colonel Gleeful.

“What the heck are you doing Corduroy?! You’re at the other side of Galaxy!! In which system are you?!” He screamed angrily.

“Sorry, not the right question” She replied, turning off the screen at half yelling of her direct superior. “Huff, I don’t believe he was commanding me all of this time” She said to herself. All of a sudden, something hit her TARDIS, making her to hit the floor and the entire console room to spin wildly.

“Alert, Alert, collision, collision” The automatic voice resounded in a joyful voice.

“The heck – Why had I to program you with that stupid voice?” Wendy shouted angrily, lifting herself over the floor. “Hold on, that’s it!” She yelled with awe, seeing the object in the monitor. Strange, but convenient, the object that hit her was emitting some sort of space-folding field she could anchor to her TARDIS. “Ok old girl, let’s take a little trip!” She said with amusement, pulling from a lever.

The TARDIS shook again, next moving in fast straight line in the direction of the object, quickly gaining its speed.

“Take that cowboys!” Wendy yelled intensely, smiling with full emotion.

“Alert, alert, collision course established. Everyone will die in 10, 9, 8…” The automatic voice began to count backwards. Wendy looked at her map in the screen, being them already very inside the spatiotemporal distortion field.

“Ok, disjoint!” She yelled, pulling the lever back. Wendy’s TARDIS stood still almost immediately in middle of space, as she adjusted the coordinates of her materialization at a few meters from the calculated crash site. She held herself from her console, and looking at the floor, sighed aloud. The distortion field was too dangerous to traverse with the TARDIS, so she had to teleport herself in the place. She walked to a round circle at a few steps from the console, and gave a last glance to the console. “Ok, let’s do this. TARDIS, that’s the place of the signal… If I don’t go back.. fly away. Teleport”. Wendy disappeared in middle air, leaving behind the silent, cold insides of her TARDIS…


	42. The Will of the Pines

\- _The Never Castle, Gamma Cassiopeia System, a few minutes ago._

_Old, silent, and forgotten, one of thousands of corridors inside the majestic castle laid quite, as it had been for so long that there was no name for such timeframe. Dust laid silent over the rusted floor, and the far sounds of water droops echoed like sighs around all seemingly endless place._

_But then, a sound._

_It began as a tiny, almost unperceivable spark in middle air, but quickly engrossed to become a blue, wild spiral roaring wildly sounds beyond comprehension. Two persons, too fast to be seen, came out from the portal, falling over the dusty floor the enough fast to avoid the incoming of an enormous finger, moving frenetically to try to grab something. The old man shot at the finger, and it came back from where it came, allowing the portal to close itself just after, like if that wasn’t there in first place. The two persons helped each other to put on feet, feeling infinite relief to feel ground below their feet at last. The young girl in blue sweater looked around the place with a mixture of concern and disappointment, as her comrade saw at his electronic clock to read the signatures of the place._

_“What’s this dirty place?” Mabel asked, with fists over her waist._

_“If the signatures are to be believed we’re inside some kind of space station, Mason’s bio-signal is not far from here” Ford replied, adjusting the tiny dials of his clock._

_‘Kay Grunkle Ford, where we go now? Bring it on!” She exclaimed, conjoining her fists with fierceness._

_“Oh right, Mason’s signatures are… there! Let’s go” Ford pointed. Mabel took her wrapping hook from her skirt’s belt and with a police-like fashion, followed Ford across the enless corridor…_

\- Exterior Gardens, The Never Castle. Gamma Cassiopeia’s System

Grass under her boots. Smoke coming from behind her, accompanied by sounds of wild flares. Above her, the untempered, magnificent and crazed skies of the Gamma Cassiopeia System, starry and lightly: its pure-white light cutting the blackness of the deep space. Wendy breathed the strange, but bearable airs of this cosmic outer garden, and turned around to see what she was following. Half-buried inside the grassy floor, having displaced an important amount of dirt, the egg-like shaped object was set in reddened flames. Aside it, a huge, broken crystalline orb. Half out of it, an inert body. Wendy immediately recognized the curled brown hair in the head of the unconscious human figure, and ran at full speed to the crash site.

_Impossible. This is impossible!_

Bare moments before reach him, the egg-like shape began to launch sparks, making Wendy to run faster than she believed she could. There was him. Unconscious, with a little blood stain coming from his forehead, and weakly breathing.

_Dipper…!_

Not losing a single moment, Wendy took his extended arms, not thinking in the possibility of shards hidden in the grass, and dragged him several meters from his shuttle. Dipper opened his eyes weakly, and looked straight into hers. “Don’t worry Dipper, I’m here” Wendy said to him, having noted his momentary regain of consciousness.

“B-… Bag” He pronounced, too weak to Wendy’s ears could understand it.

“What?” Wendy asked, stopping from dragging him.

“Bag. Inside” Dipper reassured, closing his eyes again. Wendy looked at the crash site; the shuttle’s sparks were getting higher, so in any moment it would explode. Her mind speeded in what she had to do. Maybe he had something important in there, something he had to bring there, something to resolve the universe-scale apocalypse. She sighed aloud, and ran to the crash site.

Dipper opened his eyes once more, seeing the last glimpse of Wendy running away from him. His senses betrayed him again, and his eyelids fell like iron above his tired, really tired eyes…

\- Meanwhile, in Level B…

“Come on come on come on!” Mabel yelled aloud, trying to follow a specific path. The corridors seemed endless, having spent at least one hour trying to get something that wasn’t just another corridor. She had already lost her TARDIS several corridors ago, and she was feeling every more lost than before. She was where she had to be, but she was trapped where she shouldn’t.

_No way! I was good at mazes!! Com’ on stupid superbrain, think!… That’s it! Keep the right wall!_

So Mabel oriented herself to the right wall of the bluish, marbled corridors, and kept running, being sure this time she could find the way out of the endless maze… or at least, her TARDIS.

-

Connor lay over the floor, trying in vain to drag himself forward. He had no idea how much hurt he was, but he was not willing to die in the floor. His wounds were too _strange_ even to his powers to heal them, and a growing sentiment of despair and defeat began to fill his head. If he could reach his rod, having been thrown several feet from him, he could have the enough power to heal himself and keep on the battle.

_Come on, you can do it!, move!_

Finally, he could roll over his wounded stomach, and he screamed (or better said, roared) with all the shapeless pain that his contact with the floor produced him. A little corner of his mind still feared to just end spilling his higher-dimensional innards over the floor and end dead. But he was not yet ready to give up.

_Move you idiot! Where’s your courage, soldier?! You sister needs you, your parents need you! You… will… Move!!!_

With all the effort of the fingertips of his left arm, he dragged his body forward, screaming at the touch of his exposed inner skin with the floor. Then was the turn of his right arm, thus, with his fury and determination at full capacity, he was going to keep dragging himself no matter how much of his inner self could be lost in the way.

_You can do this, you can do this…_

_-_

_“Oh my goodness, he’s disemboweling himself, make him stop!” Darlene yells, covering her eyes with horror. Really, her sight of the events is too much for her._

_“Be patient, the pieces are in position”_

_-_

“When do you think we’re going to be interrogated?” Aiden asked, walking around the room with his hands over her nape. He had finished his lunch a while ago, and the lack of news was beginning to unsettle him.

“Hmm, you’re right. It is beginning to look strange that no one had come yet” The Doctor appointed, standing in front of the table with a fist bellow his chin, scratching his beard with his thumb.

“Don’t you think that… something’s going wrong out there” Mason said, sit over the floor with her legs crossed, putting her arms over her knees. “I mean, why a being who’s destroying the universe cold bother in make us breakfast. A very, very familiar breakfast” She appointed. “It doesn’t look like a part of his agenda”

“Maybe we’re actually dead” Aiden joked, chuckling a little.

“Last time I checked, the afterlife didn’t serve pancakes, boy” The Doctor inquired with a more serious tone.

Suddenly, the floor trembled, and the far, but perfectly distinguishable sound of something exploding made echo across the room. The three looked each other with different glances that soon converged into a single expression: pure worry.

\- Never Castle, Gamma Cassiopeia System

_One, two, three four, five, one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, fire… Fire!_

“Fire!” Dipper yelled, opening his eyes wide. Feeling like his lungs were squished inside him, took the deepest breath he would remember, and turned his head frantically to see where he was. Immediately he noticed the dirty texture of the floor below his hands, and looked to see them. He was sit over the floor, his back recharged over a stony wall, in middle of a dark, endless corridor. Blurred figures of monsters and warriors were visible in the other side of the corridor’s walls, but he was still too tired to begin to analyze his situation. He just stared at the blurred wall, pondering if this was real, or just another of his hallucinations, when…

“Hey! I see you’re awake” He heard from his left. He turned his head to see, and a smile instantly took place over his tired face.

“Wendy, you’re here…” He replied the most amused he was, trying to lift himself from the floor with his now shaky hands. She speeded to him, taking his shoulders to keep him down over the floor. He was staring at her, filled in a million questions, and strange mixtures of relieve and concern. Her military attires and their particular scarlet tone spoke him of strange, unseen paths in which the world developed in his absence, victim of temporal transgressions he could not dare to begin to imagine.

“Hey hey hey, hold on there, pal. You’ve took a long trip” She scold him gently, standing over her knees. His lips trembled, and from a second to other, his shaky arms were around hers, and his face buried in her shoulder. She hugged him in response, rubbing his back with her bare hand. “It’s ok Dip, we’re ok” She said, hearing the pathetic mockeries of sobbing that sprouted of his mouth.

“I – I don’t know what to – I’m so sorry for – Da heck sure you don’t even remember…” He tried to say.

“Hey, give me a little of credit. I punched some mice gorgons in the face” Wendy replied with amused proud. Instantly, Dipper got away form her, taking her armored shoulders and looking at her with serious surprise.

“Hold on. Do you remember?” He asked with more aim in his voice. “But the Shift and the…”

“Ford took my memories back. All of them” Wendy replied.

“Where’s he? He and Grunkle Stan are ok?” Dipper asked with even more aim. Wendy got quiet, looking away from him with a pity glance. He immediately caught what happened, and he put his hands over his mouth, frowning in despair.

_Come on man! The fight’s not over! You must keep yourself in one piece!…_

He closed his eyes and breathed deep and slowly, trying to keep calm. He let his hands to fall quietly from his mouth, and looked back to Wendy.

“What about Mabel?” Dipper asked.

“I know she escaped in a faulting TARDIS. She could be everywhere right now but here, you haven’t to worry about her. She’s safe” Wendy reassured, taking his shoulders. Dipper nodded in response, smiling weakly. “Now, we have to find Cassie”

“But – She’s safe on Earth. Grunkle Ford told us that…”

“Earth doesn’t exist anymore, Dipper. Not in this timeline. Cassie’s here, that’s why I found this place. I don’t know why, or how, but she’s here” Wendy interrupted him. Dipper’s pupils dwarfed in silent horror, knowing that the place where they were had to be the source of the Shifts.

“But this is the…”

“Yes. This is where whoever is doing something to the universe is doing it. I tracked her temporal signature with my TARDIS, then I found your shuttle and rescued you”

“What’s a T – Where’s the bag? Wendy, we need the bag…” Dipper began to say, trying again to lift from the floor. Again, Wendy kept him in place, taking his shoulders.

“Chill out, I recued the bag before your shuttle explode. Take” Wendy said, taking the bag from an unseen place between the huge debris pieces that were shattered along the floor, and gave it to Dipper. He opened it, and checked its contents under the curious, hopeful glance of Wendy. A pair of quantum grenades, a time duct tape, a memory gun, a pair of glasses, and some little bottles of dubious contents with rust over their signs were all what the bag had inside. Dipper hoped to feel more grounded seeing them, but now he felt more lost than ever. He had literally _no idea_ of what to do with all of those things. He rested the bag in his lap and passed his hands over his face in obvious despair.

“Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh!…” Dipper began to yell continuously. He was the last hope to save the universe, to save his family, to save whatever higher levels of Reality were in risk… to save Mabel. And the only he had to do it was a bunch of used junk. Again, he felt the pressing hands of Wendy over his shoulders, and took his hands away from his face to see her. Her supportive, courage face hit him immediately. It was that proud smile that was telling him that she was going to fight along him no matter how out of options they could be. He smiled, and rubbed his nape. “I’m being a total drama queen, I am not?” He asked, more calmed.

“Well, you’re a very skilled drama queen” She reassured, standing. “Come on boy, let’s save the universe. Again” She said, extending her hand to him. The amused expression she had when she said “Again” made Dipper to remember all the other times (At least, in the lives he could remember) they were with all against them and yet they came onwards. His smile widened, and he took Wendy’s hand, lifting from the ground.

“Let’s save my daughter” Dipper said with enthusiastic determination. 

-

Connor was at scarce inches from his rod, being sure he lost more blood in the floor than his previous form could have stood and being alive. His fingertips were already feeling the soothing sensation of the powerful energies inside his main tool and weapon, so shiny, and yet so far from him. He was at the edge of unconsciousness, still struggling to hold the rod between his fingers. He was hearing from distance the incoming battle, and his speeding heart was not being able to keep pulsating anymore.

_Come on!!! Almost… There!!!_

-

“Ready?!” The Doctor yelled, having put the backward counting in his sonic screwdriver. Aiden and Mason were behind the tilted table, peeping out to see.

“Ready” Mason said, nodding with determination.

“Ready” Aiden said, nervously giving The Doctor thumbs up.

“Oh right. Three, two… One! Make space!” The Doctor yelled at them, running straight to the table and jumping above it, falling over his butt and dragging himself behind the table, between Mason and Aiden. Everyone covered their ears tightly, as The Doctor ordered, and automatically closed their eyes, waiting for the worse. Then they heard the high-pitched explosion, glimpsing an intense white spark and a cloud of dust when they opened their eyes.

“It worked?” Aiden asked, looking at his comrades. Not bothering in respond, Mason turned around and lifted her head to see.

“It worked!” She yelled in amusement. The door was gone.

“Ok, let’s find Cassie and get out the heck of here” Aiden pointed, peeping out as well…

-

“This won’t work Young Crone, You… will fail” The Could’ve Been King said, standing heavily over the dusty floor. The gigantic hall’s lights were flickering above them, due the huge hole they made when they fell from the roof. He saw at the Young Crone; she was standing at a short distance from him, looking at him with maniac amusement.

“Heh, it’s curious. Those were your brother’s last words” She said with tempting defiance. “Why don’t you just give up eh? Your kind’s powers are more powerful in human flesh than your own flesh, you’ll never win this” She asked, lifting her arms.

“Why do you want to destroy this universe?! You chose it!” He asked, unable to comprehend. She had tampered with the Shifts and killing his brother mercilessly even when she needed to comprehend how they worked to her part of the deal to be accomplished. “What do you want?”

“Oh what the heck, I’ll kill you anyway” She said with an unamused expression, and took away the dimensional distortion that made her face and voice forgettable from her. The Could’ve Been King froze in confusion, his feelings frowning in pure and sincere in disbelief.

“What…”

“You know? I used to respect our deal. But then I was forced to see the same thing to happen over and over again, and I understood that no matter what I would do, I couldn’t prevent it. So, if the house’s misbuilt, why not tear it down all of once?” The Young Crone said in impaired amusement.

“Prevent what?” The Could’ve Been King asked.

“Egh, It doesn’t matter. Die!” She yelled, protruding a black, oily crystalline shard from her arm, straight to the King’s heart.

Suddenly, another being came out from the roof, speeding to the towards the floor like a cannonball. The shard broke down against the entity, still covered in clouds of dust, like a class cup crashing the floor. The dust clouds descended, and there he was. With a knee over the floor, sustaining his body with the aid of a golden rod, the greyish young man stood between the Young Crone and his master.

“I’m here Master” Connor said, lifting from ground, as he was still staring at the woman, noticing as well her true face.

“Ooow so cute, the little boy defending his old teacher” The Young Crone said, smiling maliciously.

“Connor, what are you doing here? Where are the others?” The Could’ve Been King asked.

“I’ve sent the Mice Gorgons for them, they’ll be safe.” Connor replied. “She almost killed me, I couldn’t allow her to hurt you, Master”

“Oh right, two against one then” The Young Crone said, extending two more black shards from her arms and holding them like swords.

“Master, she had something in an orb, when she destroyed it that hurt me. Where you intending to…” Connor asked, ready to fight.

“Yes. As I promised” The Could’ve Been King replied. Connor smiled warmly, and held high his rod.

“Well, let’s dance, witch” He said, pointing his rod at the Young Crone.

“Bring it on, worm” The Young Crone replied in response. The fight had begun…

-

The fierce mice gorgons ran across the endless corridors, pursuing them. Aiden, Mason and The Doctor were running desperately, trying to escape in who know which direction they would pick up.

“Run youngsters, run!!” The Doctor yelled at them, frantically looking for a new direction which they had to follow.

“Hah! If… I had a coin for every time I’ve heard that!” Mason yelled as well.

“Here!” Adien shouted, turning to left…

-

“Here” Wendy said, pointing at the tick, metallic door, sealed away from the rest of the decayed corridor with gigantic screws attached at the wall’s doorframe. Next, she put the spongy piece of telepathic circuit inside her pocket, and put her hand over the door’s surface. Her eyes rolled around everywhere, as she began to figure how to tear the door down. A moment of cleverness, and she raised her head with enthusiasm.

“That’s it! Dipper, bring me the bag” Wendy exclaimed. Dipper gave her the bag, and her free hand instantly went inside it, taking a little bottle out. She returned him the bag, and with not much difficulty, removed the tiny but fiercely attached lid. She passed the now opened bottle just below her nose, fast but revealing. “Ok Dipper, take a few steps back” She said to him. At first second he looked quite confused, but almost immediately he caught her idea, and took those steps back. She walked away as well, and after a brief but powerful sigh, she threw the bottle at the door.

It was a little but bright explosion, the enough to make them to cover their eyes at moment, as they heard a sound according to a tablet dissolving in water. The spark reduced, so Dipper and Wendy took away their arms to see. The most of the door was now gone, leaving behind an asymmetrical but decently big hole. Dipper and Wendy looked each other, and after a brief nodding, they came thru.

They were inside what looked like a lab, or more appropriately, the mixture of a repair hall and a morgue. It was not very well illuminated, in the style of a parking lot of an old movie, and scattered across the place, there were tangling pieces of machineries, lab tables filled with pieces of junk and half-dissected animals of various sizes and shapes, and things not easily identified as one or other. For a moment, Wendy looked at one of the dead animals, and perceived the chance of finding an aggressive foe. She took her staser, and looked at Dipper.

“Ok, Let’s do this. You stay here, I’ll check the perimeter” She said, charging her weapon.

“Aren’t you going to need help?” Dipper asked, a quite concerned.

“Hey, You wouldn’t believe in how many battles I was in this life, take me a lil’ more seriously.” She replied merrily, punching him playfully in the shoulder. “Don’t touch anything” She concluded, and walked away.

So Dipper began to wander around the lab, not so far from where they were, in search of clues about the nature of the beings responsible of all that situation…

-

_Oh God oh God oh God…_

Cassie laid over the tiny floor of her metallic imprisonment, sobbing in silence. She had tried in vain to get out of the metallic suit for almost two hours, and what at first had gotten into a methodical escae quickly turned into despaired kicks and punches around everywhere inside the reduced space. All her efforts, and the dangers she and her surely lost comrades passed, only to end stuck inside a robotic giant pepper pot.

_I can’t give up. I just can’t give up! But… What else to do? I – I …_

Suddenly, something caught her attention thru the blue sight of her suit. Something was moving in the lab, behind the pieces of machinery. Would be maybe the dangerous being his brother surely was fighting, or something worse?

Then that something came out to her vision field, and wasn’t just something anymore. Raggedy brown hair, a white T-shirt stained with drops of blood and dust, and equally dusty pants, the young man passed walking with an old brown bag sustained on his shoulder by a belt. Her heart raced, and she lifted so fast that she almost hit the top of her suit. Against all logic, and probably being just some sort of elaborated hallucination, he was there. It had to be real, it had necessarily to be real. He was maybe too young, looking undeniably like a teenager, but she wouldn’t confuse that face, she was sure it was him, and quickly her mind spiraled into all sorts of explanations to justify his actual state, when he began again to lost inside the sight of the machines.

_No. no no no no Wait!_

“STAY!” The metallic voice sounded aloud and squared. Dipper almost jumped in surprise, being ready to pick a fight with… whatever he should fight, when looked at that direction, and relaxing a little, walked towards the source of the noise. It was some sort of robot in chains, with the look of an enormous salt shaker with lots of details above. There was an eyestalk in front of the “head” of the machine, that creepily it was following his movements.

_Dad, look at me! I’m inside. How I…_

“CREATOR, LOOK AT ME. I AM INSIDE” The metallic voice spoke to him. Dipper frowned in confusion. Could that be a trap?

“What… What or who are you? Did you… Did you talk?” Dipper asked

_It’s me, Dad! I’m Cassie, I am your daughter!…_

“I AM A DALEK, YOU ARE MY ENEMY!” The voice spoke. Cassie’s eyes widened. The voice distorted horridly her message, and she had no idea how bad her father could react.

Dipper made two steps back, a little scared for the menace. Two cylindrical bulbs over the “head” of the robot sparked as it spoke, word by word, and it looked like it tried to move forward, being restrained by the chains, so he was getting sure that whatever could be, it was fully operational… and would want to kill him. However, the thing would still offer answers, answers he and Wendy needed to know what they had to fight with for the sake of the universe. He made a step forward, and put serious. “What are you?” He asked with defiant voice.

_It’s me Dad, I’m Cassie!…_

“I AM A DALEK, CREATOR. I AM A DALEK!!!!” The electronic voice spoke. Dipper detected a confusing dot of frustration in that flat expression, but quickly attributed it to the deranged state of the robot. But why it was telling him “Creator”? Was the foe of the universe using his face, of he had.. something to do with what was happening? Or… was the robot luring him to his death?! Dipper got frenzied, and took the memory gun out of the bag, pointing at it. The eyestalk quickly turned right to the weapon, and stared at it no matter where Dipper moved it to test if the robot was putting attention.

“You’ll say me everything or – or I’ll wipe out you! I swear!” Dipper said angrily at the robot, which began to move its eyestalk in a confusingly human expression of reflexing.

Cassie’s mind thought in silence, so scared as she was. She recognized the weapon, so she knew that a wrong word more, and she could be mind-erased and now she could be definitively lost with no memory of why she was there. She had to thing in something, an expression with no translation, something only he could recognize and could not be mistranslated by the robot’s programing.

_Oh no…_

Maybe he couldn’t remember it, or maybe he could react even more aggressively than before for whatever reason could be… but she had to try it. She gulped and closed her eyes, waiting for the worst.

“UNCLE…DIIIP” The machine spoked slow, and in seemed defeat. And like a dart, it hit some place of his mind. Something in the airs was telling… No. It was yelling him to listen, to remember…

“What… What did you said?” Dipper said, lowering the memory gun.

“UNCLE… DIP!!!” The robot yelled aloud. This time, whatever was telling him to stop make much more clearer, and brief glimpses of horridly familiar things hit him. One of his hands left the memory gun and passed across his hair with despair, as he ended to put down the weapon. It was against all logic, but being where, when and how he was, that didn’t matter anymore.

“…Cassie?” He asked, gulping aloud, with his breath increasing.

“AFFIRMATIVE!” The robot replied, with diffuse emotion. Then his own mind spiraled with lots of theories of why was she or was that thing. But her signatures marked the lab, and no one else in Earth, in any of them, could have called him in that way. “HELP, UNCLE DIP” The robot spoke again. Dipper walked towards the machine, as it followed him with the eyestalk. Then he passed his hands across his hair again.

“Can’t you get out from there?” Dipper asked.

“NO. THE SUIT HAS MALFUNCTIONS” The robot spoke.

“Ok ok ok ok, hold on there. I… I know what to do” Dipper said. He took other of the tiny bottles from his bag, and thought in how use it. If the whole portion melted away a complete metal door, one single drop should be enough. No other thing to set her free her from the suit was at hand, and any other thing in that lab would easily kill her. He had no other option. Luckily, it looked like Grunkle Ford had thought in situations like that, because, when he opened the bottle, the lid had a dropper inside. One single drop, all he needed. “Ok Cassie, hold the breath and put yourself as far as you can” He instructed her. 

Inside the suite, Cassie saw what his father was doing, and quickly concluded what was meant to happen. She recharged herself as much as she could, and closed her eyes.

“I AM PREPARED” the robotic voice spoke. Dipper breathed deep, and slowly moved closer to the metallic suit.

“Ok, here we go” He said…

A single drop fell over the metal, and Dipper tried to move back as fast a he could, but he slipped up, and the bottle flew out of his hands while he fell over his back against the floor. Two blinding sparks made him to cover his eyes with his arms, followed by the acidic sound, as he hoped with all his force that he hadn’t just melted his own daughter alive. The sound ceased after a few seconds, and he uncovered his face, slowly lifting from ground. Then he saw at the robot. The metallic carcass melted away, so he could now see the insides. Between spongy, bluish material, Cassie was hiding her face with her arms, breathing hard. A little but hot drop of melted metal had fallen over her right arm, so he saw a tiny line of burned skin, but she seemed too scared to notice it. Apparently, she heard his steps, because she slowly uncovered her arms, looking at him. Taking care of not touch the borders of the melted metal, she got out from the metallic suit at the moment he ran to try to aid her, when she fully came out and ran towards him. Their opened arms closed around each other, hugging each other so strong they could collapse a star, sobbing continuously.

“I found you! I finally found you” She yelled, covering her face with his body, not stopping of cry.

“My baby…” He tried to respond, failing to stop his cries. For a moment, the chuckled between their sobs, mocking their excess of drama.

“We’re a full cray-cray babies” Cassie said, still laughing.

“Yes, we are” Dipper replied, kissing her head. His daughter was there, at last.

“Why are you so young?” Cassie asked, not having the enough mental force to figure a coherent joke about.

“Long story, guess you can find it out” He replied, chuckling again.

“I guess. Where’s mom?” She asked.

“She… She’s safe, don’t worry” He replied, wondering if he really could assure that…


	43. Killing Spree-er

\- _The Outer Gardens, The Never Castle. Gamma Cassiopeia System, a few moments ago…_

_Whispering, wafting around the new airs that the atmospheric shield provided, the perseverant sprites came at last, having traveled the long way around, who know how many time, who know how many lives. But they were at last, at the doors of the realm of their ancestors… Or at least, that was they believed._

_The Elder One put their tiny feet over the grass, and their bright, flaming star-like skin got off, and from it, a coat of green grass grew over them. The Elder One felt that the grass was indeed touched by the hand of their ancestors; definitively, they had arrived. The rest of sprites, one by one, already having grown to human size by sole age, stepped over the grass as well, feeling the power invested in every corner of their insides._

_But then, an explosion, coming from one of a window at one of the endless towers that were sprouted out from the gigantic palace in front of the humble gardens. The sprites looked at their Master, and The Elder One nodded in silent determination._

_They had come to help._

\- In some place inside the Never Castle…

The elevator’s doors flew away, violently crashing the walls before fall into the floor in a noisy spectacle. From the now free elevator’s entrance, a pair of hands crept over the floor. A red headed raised between them, looking at her inmediate surroundings with maniac awe.

“Well, there went the second grenade,” Wendy exclaimed in amusement “You can come up, guys, I want to hear the rest of the story”.

Wendy stood over the ground, sitting at the edge of the entrance. Next, she took Dipper’s hand to help him to go up, in which back was Cassie, with her arms around his neck. She, aided by Wendy’s strong arms, reached the floor, untangling herself from her father’s neck. The three of them stood over the ground and fell into the vitreous ground with exhausted expressions; more than due a long trip, due to the mad voyage they had in that fast elevator.

Dipper looked at Cassie, who in turn was seeing him back. The lighthearted memories of his life with her passed fast across his mind, and for a moment he felt back home, at the undone times, in the merry afternoons after the tired and bored work hours when he, Mabel and Cassie could spend time together. So he remembered too, the night movies over the couch watching old Ducktective movies, _The Cranky Girl Who Did Chores in Spirit Town, _or Cassie’s favorite one: _Kanira vs Habura: Let Them Fight!,_ the only old VHS in Grunkle Stan’s box Mabel could stand without hide behind the couch. He remembered Mabel’s constant surprise faces at the already seen plot twists, and Cassie’s amused expression at the rubber-suit monster fights due her well settled taste for bygone things. He wondered how he could’ve forgotten that, how he forgot Cassie, the living embodiment of the love he and Mabel had for each other, the girl who traversed who knows what odds and perils to reach that cursed place. His daughter, The Survivor.

Before he could made himself to know, he was passing his hand across Cassie’s sweaty hair, uncovering her forehead above her shinny eyes. None of them spoke a single word, but one made the other to know that they missed each otter.

Suddenly, both heard a noisy raspberry, and lifted their heads to see Wendy, with her body lifted over the ground.

“Ehmm, guys; I don’t want to spoil this beautiful scene but you know, the whole-universe-in-danger thing” She said, pointing at the endless corridor behind them. They heard a far explosion, and quickly remembered their purpose there. Dipper looked back at Cassie, now she seemed again brave and determinate.

“Let’s finish with this” Cassie said. “There’s something else you have to know” She said next, frowning in worry. Dipper’s smile faded away, acknowledging the incoming of even worse news…

\- The Safe Heavens; The Never Castle. Gamma Cassiopeia System.

Connor fell straight over a stony bridge above a small river, completely destroying it. A great amount of dust aroused, coming from the numerous floors he just traversed in his downward way. He aroused from the watery river, heavily, soaked, and tired, but still willing to fight. He heard an air-tube like sound coming behind him, and knew that his master had come too. He made a quick glance at the place of the castle which they had fallen, and stared with heighted fear at the place in which they were now, the place in which supposedly all whom they had to protect should be.

Endless stony gardens extended it selves several kilometers around him, filled in quiet ponds of fresh water, runic stones of undecipherable messages scattered between green seas of flowered plants of kaleidoscopic colors, and tiny wild Neverweres flying around like the fairies of a folktale. Those were the Safe Heavens, the personal sanctuary of the Never Castle.

But Connor wasn’t feeling any of their presences in the nearby environment… or inside the whole place at all. He turned around himself, in the search of the briefest sight of their silhouettes, but his keen sight didn’t see anything like them. They weren’t there

“No. No no no no no…” He began to say, when he heard the ceiling crumbling above them. “Master, she’s coming” He said, and the Could’ve Been King nodded softly in response.

The Young Crone fell over the floor, covered by a cloud of dust and the hideous smell of the blood of dozens of mice gorgons. The cloud fell like heavier debris at her mere contact with floor. Herblack, oily cloak was soaked in red blood, and her right hand, clawed and pulsating, was still holding the disfigured corpse of a mice gorgon, with its jaw disjointed and its ribcage tore apart, legs and arms broken and tangling over the floor.

“Well, don’t you think this doesn’t make sense anymore?” The Young Crone asked, letting the corpse in her hands to fall lifeless over the humid grass.

“Why do you want to destroy the universe?” Connor asked, still enraged for the death of his troops. The Young Crone gasped in amused disbelief, waving her arms in response.

“Why do you care?” She said in an anticlimactic smile. “You’re only an anomaly. Furthermore! Youu should be with me; without me you hadn’t existed at all!”. Connor froze, so did the Could’ve Been King. The Young Crone grinned malevolently, having just discovered a weak spot in the fight, and she was willing to use it.

“…What?” Connor asked, increasing his breath.

“That’s right. I caused the anomaly which made you to exist. You can blame your dear master for that, he trusts anyone” The Young Crone replied poking her cheek in an anticlimactic way.

“Why would you want do that? What were you thinking?!” The Could’ve Been King asked furiously.

“Oh! Come on King, you know it! We were taking forever in find the supposed suitable universe! You were going to take me with you whenever you could want” The Young Crone said “So many universes and none of them was of your liking!… So, I… speeded the things a little. It’s a luck you taught me to protect myself in the mindscape, it was soooooo easy to tamper with this universe. The only I had to do was to change some memories; a forgotten pill here, a little fixing there, and done! You existed. But you proved to be soooooo annoyingly persistent, so I had to… erase some little memories here and there among your family, and well, the rest is History”

Connor was breathing hard in full rage, holding tightly his rod between his pressing hands. All the things which didn’t make sense, the gaps and the nonsenses now were clear as air, and he couldn’t feel angrier. “What did you erase?” He asked with sustained fury. The Young Crone’s grin increased over her face, knowing she had accomplished her purpose. “You’ll never know”

Suddenly, a strong air current coming from below the Could’ve Been King’s feet sucked him into a hole, in the moment he screamed aloud when the floor in which he stood disappeared.

“I cast you out forever King! Live with your mistake done!” The Young Crone yelled aloud, and flew away thru the hole she made to get inside. Connor flew straight to the hole, speeding inside the incoming darkness.

“Master!” He yelled, trying to take his hand. “I got you!”

Connor’s hand stretched the King’s right hand, almost out from the hole. In the other side of the unholy tunnel there was the Nightmare Realm, in all its horrifying and gargantuan glory. The waves of whatever strange force, of the lawless insanities that comprised the rules of the maximum realm, made the King’s cape to wave violently in the direction of the way out. Connor turned to see him, trying to not pay too much attention to the utterly frightful environment that awaited for them. His facelessness looked at him with warm content, that kind that one might suppose as a way to say goodbye.

“That clever witch was calculating the hole in her mind as she was talking. How ironic” The Could’ve Been King said, still holding his apprentice’s hand.

“Take my other hand Master, I can get you out!” Connor yelled, trying with cosmic efforts to pull him in.

“She’d casted me out Connor. I know the power of my brother, you can’t do anything” The Could’ve Been King said, in an accepting and slow tone.

“No… No no no! You can’t give up! Your body won’t survive The Void!” Connor yelled again, with tiny golden tears falling from his eyes.

“Heh! I’ve been in worst places, my son.” The Could’ve Been King replied, turning to see the vastness in which he was going to fall. “I’m so sorry, my apprentice. I had never made you to sacrifice so much for my cause. My quest will continue, no matter what, but you have to save your home. Save your family, as I couldn’t save mine”. Connor frowned in anger and frustration, holding his master’s hand even tighter.

“No! That’s just a lot stupid junk! You can make it! You built all of this!”. The King extended his free hand to try to cast his power, but the vastly powerful sparks were sucked away like water by the same forces that were dragging him away, in front of the unaccepting eyes of Connor. All his power was useless now, at least, inside the universe. Connor turned to see him again, his eyebrows trembling in defeat. “I’ll make you proud, Master” He spoke.

“No. You don’t need anything to prove…” The King replied.

The Could’ve Been King’s hand slipped from his, and Connor watched impotent how his master was sucked away and disappeared between colorful, endless seas of steam and madness. Connor kept his hand at the air for a moment, when the muddy walls of the tunnel began to shrink around him.

-

Mason, Aiden and The Doctor fell over the ground, their feet pulled by furry clawed hands. The Doctor turned over the floor, seeing defiantly how the mice gorgon crept over him, ready to paralyze him again.

“Here we go again…” He said, closing his eyes.

But then, three shoots. Three horridly familiar sounds he recognized very well. Immediately he opened his eyes, looking at Mason and Aiden, getting on feet in front of unconscious mice gorgons. The Doctor raised from ground and turned to see whose were behind them, almost at the same time that his comrades.

“Oh, for God’s sake” The Doctor mustered.

In front of them, at a short distance, there was Cassie, a raggedy teenager of brown hair holding her hand, and a gallifreyan female soldier in the act of putting down her staser. 

“Mason!” Cassie yelled happily, running towards her.

“Cassie! You’re alive!” Mason yelled back, receiving her between her arms in a merry hug.

“Dipper?!” Aiden exclaimed in disbelief.

“Aiden!” Dipper replied in confusion.

“A soldier from Gallifrey!” The Doctor yelled in angry bewilderment, strangling Ollistra in his mind.

“Ehmm, I really have no idea what to yell” Wendy replied, scratching her nape.

“Hold on bro, how did you make it to here?” Aiden asked, walking slowly towards Dipper without completely believe he was there.

“Not in the same way as you did” Dipper replied, getting spontaneously awkward, but to Aiden’s surprise, unsurprised at all, while aside them, The Doctor was walking slowly but aggressively towards Wendy.

“What are you doing here, soldier? Ollistra sent you?” The Doctor asked to Wendy.

“Olive-who?” Wendy reassured. The Doctor made the math quickly in his mind, and guessed the worst.

“I guess you’re not from another universe” The Doctor said sternly.

“Ahhhhm… Nop. sorry, man” Wendy replied, looking around everywhere in an uncomfortable expression.

“Oh gosh, we were so worried about you; we’ve running who knows how much to try to find you” Mason said, untangling the hug and holding Cassie’s shoulders. Then Mason’s eyes turned to see the burn in Cassie’s arm. “Cassie, your arm!”

“It’s ok. Look, I found Dad!” Cassie replied, turning to point at him. “Dad, she’s the other You!”. Dipper turned his head away from Aiden’s multiple and equally unanswered questions, and walked towards his parallel self, while Cassie moved apart from Mason.

There was a brief moment of silence between them, filled with a fast exchange of frowning glances, a short chuckle, and both uncovering their respective foreheads.

“Wow, you make me have so many…” Both said at the same time.

“Ehmm, we’ll need some…” They said at unison again. Then both brains thought the same way to find an asymmetry, and extended their respective hands to stretch them.

“Dipper” Dipper said.

“Mason” Mason said at the same time, when their hands stretched.

“Mason?” Dipper asked, lifting an eyebrow in confusion.

“Aaaand that’s the asymmetry” Mason replied, pointing at him with her free hand in a pistol-like stance.

“Hey Dippers, some can say this old man to stop of inspect me?” Wendy told them from behind.

“Mhmm interesting. The Could’ve Been King imprinted the whole gallifreyan physiology and cultural traits on the inhabitants of this dimension’s Earth” The Doctor appointed, walking around Wendy. “I wonder how perfectly he did”

“Hey, if you are seeing my regenerations’ browse history I’m gonna smack you, dude” Wendy said.

“Ahmm, Doctor maybe you should to stop. Trust me, she’ll do it” Mason said. The Doctor walked away from Wendy, looking around the new team.

“I think I know what’s happening with this universe. If we don’t hurry up maybe it’s already too late” The Doctor appointed.

“Ok, but how we get out of here?” Cassie asked. Everyone turned to see her, and next Aiden looked at Dipper.

“How did you find us?” Aiden asked in a brief frowning.

“I took a slice of my TARDIS’s telepathic circuit, Cassie used it to find you” Wendy replied. Cassie took the spongy sample out of her pocket, as Aiden looked at it with certain disgust.

“O right, that’s all I would want to know” Aiden said. “Where’s Mabel?”

“She’s…” Dipper tried to answer, looking away. Say ‘_She’s everywhere but here’_was resulting every time less pleasant to say.

Suddenly, Cassie moved her hand with the spongy piece towards a corridor, as this began to shine sparkly.

“No, Mom’s here, I feel it!” Cassie said with growing awe. She walked with hurry towards the corridor, following the telepathic trail.

“No, Cassie…” Dipper tried to say.

“Cass, wait!” The Doctor yelled, following her pace.

Everyone followed Cassie in her rapid walking towards the multiple directions, across several confusing corridors. Wendy unfolded her staser, ready to shot, as Dipper and Mason tried to put along Cassie in her march to the signal. Left, right, right again, and then left, Cassie turned around the endless, marbled corridors, the veins of the Never Castle, when in a sudden movement, she stopped, having just turned to right into the next corridor.

Mason and Dipper came first, so the three saw them, speechless. There was Mabel, wearing a blue sweater with a Portal Universe figure in it and her wrapping hook in one hand, along Grunkle Ford, putting his laser gun down when he saw them.

“That’s…?” Cassie tried to tell, but suddenly something – She could not say what - went out of place.

Before Cassie could say that something was not right about her, and before Mason could make her own way towards her, Dipper speeded straight to Mabel.

Her eyes widened in confusion while his arms went around her body, squishing her body against his. Mabel remained motionless, overwhelmed with the warm that powerful hug was pouring. Then next, Dipper untangled himself from her, and taking her cheeks between the palms of his hands kissed her ardently. Mabel’s eyes widened even more, and her wrapping hook fell out of her hands straight into the crystalline floor. Staring at Dipper’s closed eyes. The kiss was so sincere, so warm and soothing… and completely out of place. 

After a brief seconds, Dipper had the enough force to separate his lips from hers, and opened his eyes. Mabel was staring at him in silent and happy terror, much for his confusion.

“Ehmm May-Maaaaay!” Mabel yelled as she rolled her eyes to see Mason. Dipper got apart two steps from Mabel, turning his head to see Mason.

“Ahmm, that’s my Mabel, Dipper” Mason said “And also my Grunkle Ford”. Dipper’s face reddened in unbearable shame, wondering how bad her Mabel could take the fact of just being kissed by the male version of her own sister, when he saw, much for his greater confusion, how Mason and that Mabel ran each other and his parallel replied his movement just in front of him, with all and the powerful kiss.

So, when the Doctor, Wendy and Aiden arrived, Mason was already kissing her Mabel with intensity.

“Oh mine” Aiden said with a disgusted frown. Wendy covered her mouth, trying to not laugh at the sight of Dipper’s bewildered face, when the sisters concluded their greeting kiss, but kept one’s hands in the other’s shoulders.

“I feared I couldn’t do that anymore” Mason said, recharging her forehead in Mabel’s.

“Heh, Boy Dipper’s also a good kisser by the way” Mabel said, chuckling briefly as Mason grinned naughtily.

“Now have I to be jealous of the other me?” Mason asked, feigning to be angry.

“Probably, Mr. Tyron” Mabel replied, and both laughed in nostalgia. Then they heard a noisy raspberry coming from behind Mabel, and both turned to see Grunkle Ford.

“I seriously thought you would miss me a little more, young girl” Ford said.

“Come on here, old man” Mason said, as she and Mabel got apart and Ford walked to hug her.

“You came to rescue me” Mason said, recharging her face in Ford’s shoulder.

“Being fair, it was Mabel’s idea. How bad it was?”

“Hey! I can hear y…” Mabel tried to tell, when Mason and Ford got apart, and she made them a quick but informative glance about the status of the situation.

“Where’s Stan?” Mason asked.

“Waiting for us in our dimension, we came here from the Nigthmare Real, we’re not so far” Ford replied.

“I don’t understand, you found me with this thing. If that’s not Mom, where she is?” Cassie asked.

“The telepathic circuits are too precise to be fooled, even by parallel persons from other dimensions. If the signals crossed so badly, that means…” The Doctor began to speak.

“… that she’s really here, inside the Never Castle” Wendy interrupted, looking at him. Dipper walked towards Cassie, taking her shoulder.

“You said… that you met your brother here, how in danger he was?” Dipper asked. Before Cassie could answer, the floor beneath them shook furiously, sending everyone straight to the floor.

-

“Finally. Just a good brave hit” The Young Crone said, standing in front of the central piece of the machinery. She touched delicately the smooth surface of the bright, golden metal, feeling part of its unmeasurable power flowing within her. Her heart speeded with the idea of cause total destruction, as her grin increased beyond the humanly possible. She was going to kill them all, she really wanted to kill them all for good. “Die forever!!” She yelled, closing her fist around the cold surface with all her forces with the intention of squish the machinery… But the hand slipped off. “What?”. She punched the metal surface with her new, cosmic forces, then again, and again and again, getting every time angrier. “Come on come on come on break down!!!” She yelled, until she stopped, breathing furiously. “Why can’t you be destroyed? Show me!” She said, resting her palm over the surface and closing her eyes. Her mind speeded towards the source of the flow that was blocking her energy into the machinery, waiting to find the core piece… until she found it, or better said, found them. She opened her eyes, smiling malevolently.

-

“This way!” Dipper yelled, as the group followed him across the everytime wider corridors which turned into halls as they ceased to be crystalline and turned stony, until they turned into practical inner palaces, filled with all kinds of furniture, gigantic statues of forgotten heroes from distant universes, chests of all possible sizes and details, and objects not discernible enough to be named. All was dusty, all was majestic, and illuminated by glowing chandeliers more alike to trees.

“Where are we?” Grunkle Ford asked loudly.

“We must be in the lower storage rooms!” The Doctor replied.

“I was asking less precisely!” Grunkle Ford yelled back.

“We’re inside a kinda gigantic space castle which’s breaking the universe!” Wendy answered, not losing a single moment her sight of where they were.

“We have a plan right? We have to have a plan!” Aiden tried to yell, as he was losing his breath due the endless run.

“For now we have to stop the woman in black cloak! Then.. We’ll figure it out” Mason replied in a yell, running along Mabel and Grunkle Ford.

“That’s all we know about her?! Da heck!” Aiden yelled even louder.

“Haha! Don’t you like the name? Mabel asked.

But then the floor shook again, making everyone to fall over the floor in middle run. The slice of telepathic circuit fell off Dipper’s hand, as the air impregnated with a scent of death and decadence and the illumination descended.

As everyone helped each other to raise from ground, Dipped looked at the source of the scent, and then he saw her. His pupils dwarfed, as cold sweat fell from his head and his legs got shaky in pure, distilled fear. Mason and Mabel saw her too, and they held their hands together, with their chests pulsating in terror.

“What about _The Young Crone_? I reaaaaaaaaaly like that name” The woman said, being at several feet from them…

\- Meanwhile, in the lower vaults…

The sprites flew in every direction inside the dusty, endless windowed corridors, as ancient as time itself, as majestic as the glory incarnated in stone and stories. Their bodies shifted between the ancient rock and the weird wind and the growing clouds of dust, getting higher as the Never Castle began to shake repeatedly. Their soft bodies twirled around every direction, seeking desperately for their ancestors, or at least something that tells them they were still living.

“They are not here, I fear the worst” Sprinkles said, coming out from a pile of debris as their skin changed from rock to air.

“If they are not here, someone else has to be using their construction” The Elder One replied, standing over the floor as he took the texture of the ground he was stepping on.

“I feel a familiar presence, something came here from Earth” Dropping said, coming in from a gigantic window”

“I feel it too. It is like… It is like…” The Elder One tried to diferenciate from the strange pulls of the air around them.

“It feels like the Pines twins!” Sprinkles yelled, floating towards the Elder One.

“Why they should be here to begin?” The Elder One asked…

-

“…Mom?” Mason and Dipper asked at the same time.

“Huh, now I am your mother, how convenient” The Young Crone replied, looking at Mason as she walked closer to them. Aiden put Cassie behind him, as Wendy took her staser even tighter, feeling the undesirable need to shot at sight. Mason recognized the scar in her left cheek, and she knew immediately which version of her mother she was.

“That’s my mother Dipper, I made her that scar; the day we ran from home” Mason said, passing her hand over her right arm. Memories of shouting and throwing thing and cries came to Mason’s mind as well as to Mabel’s, nothing pleasant at all to keep in mind. “Why… why are you here?”

“Hah! Now do you care, don’t make me laugh! Sure Mabel got stuck wherever she could be and suddenly you came to rescue_ her_. How romantic” The Young Crone said, pointing at Mabel. Mabel’s eyes were getting moisty, as she hugged her wrapping hook and walked a few steps towards her.

“Mom…” Mabel tried to say, extending her left arm in her direction.

“NO!!! I’m not your mother anymore. Never! You had spent all this time without caring about why I disappeared. You disgusting scum!” The Young Crone interrupted her abruptly. Mabel’s hand went back over her wrapping hook, as fast tears ran over her shaky cheeks.

“Ann, you haven’t disappeared where we come from. What has happened to you must have happened in your subjective future…” Ford tried to reason with her.

“Just shut up Ford and shut up your freaking lies! I am not _Ann_ anymore. Ann Pines died the day their daughters decided that their disgusting backdoor shenanigans were more important than their family. You two killed me” The Young Crone interrupted, bitter and remorseful.

“Mom… Listen to me. Whatever is happening we can help you; let us undone…” Mason tried to talk.

“Hah! Haven’t you with your smart brain given account? _I_ am the one who’s destroying this gross reality. And I’ll have the work done, with all of you here inside” The Young Crone said, lifting her arm to close ar fist in the air, pulling strings of rotten spacetime inside her hand.

“You…” Dipper began to say, getting furious.

“That’s right, _Boy-Dipper_. I am the responsible of get your lives worse and you know what? It was sooo funny to torture you over and over again while the Kings and your unborn son were wondering _what was going wrong with the Shifts_” The Young Crone said in a mocking tone, feigning to clean nonexistent tears with her fists. Dipper enraged as he didn’t knew he could’ all the pain, all the endless struggles, all the time Mabel had suffered with whole eras of memories inside her head. His fists got thigh as much as his nails craved inside his skin. Her mother’s face or not, all he wanted now was to punch it to pulp.

“We’re going to stop you” The Doctor said, making a step forward.

“What?” The Young Crone replied, bewildered.

“I’ve spent too much time inside an endless war. But I won’t let it to leak in any other place. If the Could’ve Been King is here he knows the stories and sure he had told them to you. I’ve fought gods, demons, demigods, all the bloody pantheon!” The Doctor kept talking, extending his arms as he walked towards.” So, if you’re intelligent, you’ll make the right choice, and you’ll go back where you came from to never go back”

“Oooh, yeah. The Doctor, I’ve heard about you” The Young Crone said, completely unimpressed. She raised a hand, and The Doctor fell over his knees, screaming in pain; so Aiden did too. Horror screams of the countless victims he saw for centuries looped itselves inside the Doctor’s head, pulsating as gongs clinging across his brain.

“Mom, stop!” Mabel yelled

“Shut up!!” She yelled at Mabel, to turning her attention to The Doctor. “Uhuuu, you have a plenty of horrible memories here, but I’m more into tamper with your future” The Young Crone said in a playful tone. “Iiirgh! Let’s make a prophecy!”

_The Doctor lies but won’t do it more,_

_When he’ll be lying on Trenzalore,_

_The Doctor lies but won’t do it more,_

_When he’ll be lying on Trenzalore,_

_The Doctor lies but won’t do it more,_

_When he’ll be lying on TRENZALORE!!!!…_

The Doctor fell over the ground, unconscious, as the Young Crone’s pupils widened with her hand in middle air. Out of nothing, she had forgotten completely how to use that power. Her eyes rolled to the sight of Dipper pointing at her with a memory gun, a weapon she knew very well now.

“You scum…” The Young Crone mustered…

_Shuimf!…_

Too fast to be prevented, too strong to be avoided. The Young Crone extended a black, oily sharp straight into Dipper’s liver, throwing him several feet until it stuck in the purple walls… having already gone through Dipper’s body.

\- Meanwhile, in the lower vaults…

The sprite herd flew wildly across miles of dusty halls, trying to gain speed under the odd laws inside the Never Castle, when they felt everything shaking around them. The Elder One stopped in middle air, as the rest of them did too. The light pouring thru the windows turned into dying crimson, and the Elder One knew that something terribily bad had happened.

“The Castle is dying” The Elder One spoke. “We’re running out of time…”

-

Cassie screamed in terror. Mabel just stared horrified how her mother had just stabbed him against the wall. Wendy and Ford unfolded their weapons and began to shoot repeatedly at The Young Crone, who covered her face with her arm as if she was being just ambushed by paper balls, and sent one of her spiky crystalline segments towards Wendy. But Wendy saw it in time, moving the enough to not be impaled alive, but not the enough to be free of the impact of the shard against the floor, sending her straight to a pile of dusty chests which fell above her and making Ford to slip off with the trembling of the ground the impact produced. Aiden ran towards The Doctor, falling in knees in front of him.

“Doctor! Doctor wake up!” Aiden yelled at him as he was shaking his urresponsive body. The Young Crone roared like a literal monster, and protruded several more of those shards, rising from floor like a spider as she pulled back the shard in his hand, letting Dipper recharged over the wall as his body slipped slowly to the floor, looking at her with impotence. His dying eyes rolled at the memory gun, still on the floor, and begged with his entire mind for her to not notice it.

“That’s it! The game is over!” The Young Crone yelled aloud, with her chest pulsating in utter rage. She made a quick look at the memory gun over the floor, and with no time to lose, smashed it with one of her long shard-legs. Then her sight rolled in Cassie’s direction, and her eyelids sharped her eyes. “Youuuu!” The Young Crone said to her. “You must die”

“Mabel, take her away” Mason said slowly, giving slow steps back.

“What…?” Mabel asked.

“Take her away” Mason shouted in panic, and Mabel ran towards Cassie, raising her from ground and launching her over her right shoulder in an single, keen movement. Mabel felt the air moving behind her and the sound of ground breaking, and how Cassie’s muscles tensed at the same time; her own mother had just sent another spiky leg to try to kill _them_. So Mabel speeded, disappearing in a near corridor with Cassie in her shoulder, trying to not cry, trying to be strong.

“Face me child! Face your sins!!!” The Young Crone practically roared at her, as she shrieked her spiky legs and got inside the corridor to chase her own daughter.

Mason looked at her fallen comrades. Wendy unconscious between a pile of heavy chests, Aiden trying to reanimate The Doctor, Ford raising from ground as he stared at her with quiet horror, and Dipper… dying alone in the floor. Automatically, she ran towards him, and put her knees over the floor, putting one hand over his shoulder. She looked at the bloody patch over his stomach, and her insides feared the worst.

“Dipper… Dipper!” Mason yelled, shaking his shoulder. “Dipper wake up!” she yelled again, with no response. She looked at his eyes, still having the expression of his last breath, an expression of hopeless fear. Then she knew it. Dipper had died, alone and afraid. “No” Mason said to herself, to just after look at Aiden and move her head slowly in a denial signal. Aiden’s eyes got moisty and his face frowned in anger and impotence, when he felt the old body aside him to move. The Doctor raised his head, holding himself from the floor with his arms, and he saw the body. 

“No” The Doctor mustered. Aiden turned his hands into fists and took them over his face, screaming with complete impotence, as his body bented to the floor in a slow movement. Then he stopped his scream, but stood breathing hard.

Suddenly, the chaldeliers’ lights turned into bloody crimson, and the floor shook beneath them. In any moment, the whole place would fall apart over them…

_Shiiumm… shiuuuum…!_

“What…?” Ford mustered, looking above him. Dozens of steamy beings appeared from the unknown, giving rounds in middle air as if they were floating. Then, one by one, the beings settled over the floor, instantly taking its crystalline texture.

Fine, slender humanoids with tiny eyes and no more over their faceless heads, landed delicately as leaves wafting in the wind. One of them walked softly towards Mason and sat over its knees, looking at Dipper’s inert body. Then it looked at Mason with a deep pity expression, the enough intense so Mason knew that being was going to aid them in some way.

“Help us” Mason asked in soft, defeated voice.

“Take our hands” The being said…

-

Out there, the entire universe shook as well.

Entire galaxies shredded like old clothes, as billions of souls, whose tiny worlds who being launched towards the deep and dark space, screamed in undecipherable terror and death. The universe was bleeding in growing darkness, an overwhelming darkness which began to cover everything…

-

The wrapping hook launched the hook at the airs, stacking against a high place. Mabel pushed the pulling bottom and elevated from ground at great speed with Cassie in her shoulder. The marvelous corridors and gigantic halls were crumbling into dust as everything around them, as from the farness, they were hearing the sounds of stocky machineries failing and cracking.

“She’s coming!!” Cassie yelled, as she saw how The Young Crone made her way across the complex, sharp details of the crumbling corridors, crawling over the immense walls like a sort of human spider with her sharply crystal legs, running wildly in their direction.

“Come here you pieces of disgusting filth!!!!” The Young Crone screamed, stabbing everything around in spasmodic convulsions, as she propelled herself with her spiky shards. “You can’t escape me! You can’t escape your death!!!”

The wrapping hook launched the girls above the ground of a high place, with Mabel activating the retractor as Cassie stood over the ground. That precise instant, one of the shards flew wild towards them, rasping Mabel’s left side at great speed.

“Aaaargh!” Mabel screamed as she fell over the floor, letting her wrapping hook to fly out of her hands.

“No!” Cassie screamed, barely giving the first step of an intended run towards her savior, when the floor beneath them inclined to the darkness. Cassie’s slipped, along Mabel and the wrapping hook, straight into the darkness…

-

Mabel came running, in middle of sporadic shakes of the ground, into the crumbling hall. The gigantic chandeliers, those tiny lights were emitting an intense red light, were waving furiously above her head, and she couldn’t prevent to look at them, before to keep moving.

_Da’ heck this place is going down, Cassie where are you?!_

Mabel passed across piles and piles of bygone stuff, wondering if she was ever going to find a way out, when her eyes caught the worst possible thing. She stopped at the sight, and turned around to prove herself that she was effectively looking what she was looking.

_No._

At first, she walked slowly, still in the hopeless idea of maybe it could be some of the numerous visual tricks that place had, but then her pace speeded more and more, until she stopped sudden.

_Dipper…_

There was, in front of her, the bloody body of her brother with his back recharged over a cracked wall, stained with his own blood. His arms laid lifeless at his sides, and his face reflected with painful clarity the despair and fear he had during his last breath.

_No, please no!_

Mabel fell over her knees embracing her own body as her spine curved towards the floor. There was no doubt; those were the clothes he was wearing the last time she saw him before he could escape, and that was the scar in his head he had because the car crash they had during their failed attempt to escape. Now Mabel knew it. She had come too late.

“NOOO!!!” She screamed aloud, to break into despaired sobs just after. Her continuous tears dropped over the floor, forming tiny spots of mud mixed with the dust in the floor. Her self-embrace got stronger, as the facts overwhelmed her more and more. She was alone, with no idea of how to fix anything and no escape from that doomed place.

Then she raised her head to look at him, with no discernible reason, when she saw it. His right hand was making a fist, sustained by his _rigor mortis_. An odd position for his arm, unless he was doing something when he died.

Her hyper-fast gallifreyan brain began to unpuzzle the situation, not willing to let his death to happen in vain. Dipper was surely trying to do something, but why?

A keener look at his fist, and she saw something white colored coming out, something like paper. At first she got reluctant, but her knowledge about him told her that she needed to do it. Delicately, she took his hand and undid the fist, revealing a creased piece of paper, a little reddened.

Mabel remembered their road to Gravity Falls, and the paper he was holding when he was writing theories about the causes of the Shifts, because he had forgotten his journal at home. The same paper he had carelessly put in his pocket when he gave the laptop to his parents.

Mabel opened the paper. Written with his own blood, over his previous notes, she read an ‘ERASE HER MEMORY’. Mabel’s eyes widened, when she saw back at Dipper’s face, and noticed he was looking at something. She turned in that direction, and saw at the pieces of a memory gun above a cracked floor. The she heard a far scream, coming to the nearest corridor out of the hall. Her trembling lips smiled, and she looked back at him.

“You idiot!” She said loudly, letting the paper to fall over the floor. Then she closed his eyes with her hand and gave his cold forehead a short last kiss. Then she raised from ground with her fists closed and a determined glance. “Let’s finish this”.


	44. So this is how it ends...

\- Main Machinery Hall, The Never Castle

The sprites put the unconscious bodies of Wendy and The Doctor over the floor in a delicate way, resting their arms over their bodies. Aiden and Ford looked at Mason with worried defiance, but she was sure of what she had to do.

“Are you sure about this?” Ford asked.

“I can’t allow her to hurt anyone else. This is my fight” She replied with a stern tone.

“Mason, I don’t really think we have time for this…” Aiden began to say.

“Please.” Mason interrupted. “If someone knows more than any of us about tech of other dimensions that’s Grunkle Ford, and someone has to take care of them”

“This is ironic didn’t you know?” Ford said. “Take. At least we have to try it” he continued, giving Mason the laser gun.

“Stay here” Mason replied, a she turned around and walked a few steps. “I come for you Bel-Bel”

Then, a sprite took her from her body, and the entire group flew away, into the unforgiving destiny…

\- Base Vaults, The Never Castle

Cassie opened her eyes heavily, feeling the weight of what surely was a great fall. Little but intense spots of pain in her body confirmed her suspicious, so no she was try to imagine where she was now.

_I can’t see anything. Where…?_

As one could have expected, her glasses weren’t in her face anymore, so everything came to be frightfully blurred again. Out of options, and out of combat, she still tried to get in feet. Her hands touched the raspy floor as her knees lifted her body of the floor. She raised her head, distinguishing a human body in front of her, lying motionless between a greyish darkness akin to a TV screen. A blurred spot of brown in where the head should be indicated who was there; the other Mabel.

“Mom – Mabel, Mabel!” She tried to yell, being too tired for a high intonation. “Mab-“

A mighty impulse hit her body, sending her several feet in the air away from her. Cassie fell hardly over the floor, giving a pair of rounds before to settle over her stomach, almost out of breath. She coughed a few times, before to regain the enough force to recharge her arms over the floor to raise from the ground. But then she felt the dark presence in the nearby, and saw the diffuse silhouette of her attacker. A human-like black body sustained over long structures like spider legs, which retracted as the figure lowered to the ground and walked towards her. Sounds only discernible as hallucinations of whispers and screams made more and more intense as the figure approached her, covering the mustering laughs it was emitting from Cassie’s ears. Then, the being took her by the neck and raised her violently over the ground.

“Arghh…” Cassie tried to scream, but the humid hand holding her neck was too tight to let her breath.

“There are sooo many ways in which I could kill you but honestly I’m tired of this” The Young Crone said. “So, let’s just kill you kill you for goo-“

A sudden force made Cassie to fly away from the Young Crone’s hand. Soft, warm hands caught her in middle air and lowered delicately over the floor, as she breathed hard and continuous.

“I got you Cass, I’m here” Mason said, still embracing her body.

Dozens of sprites were ambushing the Young Crone, flying around her as she waved her hands and sprouted shards in every direction. No fire or hard shard she could launch towards them could damage them, because they took immediately the texture of whatever it was touching them.

The brave, gracile sprites hit her body repeatedly, until the Young Crone fell over the ground much for her greater anger.

“Get off freaks!!!” She shouted at the beings as their constant tackling prevented her from raise again.

_Hold on, I know this essence…_

On a fast movement, the Young Crone stood and yelled “Overcharge!!!!”. A strong pulse sprouted from her, sending Mason and Cassie towards the floor, and hitting all of the sprites, which immediately fell over the floor, prey of violent seizures. Their skins shifted abruptly between the different appearances they had taken until their seizures stopped and the sprites laid unconscious with their body surfaces shaped in stained mixtures of different textures. Dirt, water, salt, wood, star flares, air and bone, altogether.

The Young Crone advanced across the bodies of the sprites in a slow and intimidating pace, as Mason crawled over her back, with Cassie held over her body, trying to get away. Mason looked at Mabel’s body for a moment, and then at her mother, as she sprouted a long, black shard from her hand like the unfolding of a sword.

“Oooh Dipper, Dipper, Dipper, when will you learn? You can’t stop me. The only you’re doing is accumulating dead bodies in your way away from me. I’ll kill you both, and then I’ll kill Mabel, and then everyone here, and then I’ll just sit comfortably to see how this gross universe burns into ashes”

Mason stared at her mother’s eyes with terror and blame. Was this what she had to do? Die in hands of the woman who gave her life?

“Mom…” Mason said weakly, as a single tear ran over her right cheek.

“You’ll die noooow!!!” The Young Crone yelled, raising her arm at the airs. Mason and Cassie held hands tightly over Cassie’s tummy and closed her eyes, waiting for the cold metal to rip across their bodies, when they heard her mother scream, and the sounds of knives cutting flesh. Immediately, they opened their eyes, in complete disbelief.

Someone – They could not see nor describe – Was above the Young crone’s back, holding her head with her hands. A thousand shards impaled the person, and this shinned aqueous flares, taking the shape of a young man with black hair. The Young Crone lit herself in fire, and the young man shinned again. Now he was a blonde, slender girl.

“Get off now!!!!” The Young Crone yelled, now scratching the back of the girl with her elongated, pointy claws. The girl screamed as she shinned again, passing to be a chubby old woman of grey hair.

The person stood over the back; no matter the tortures the Young Crone inflicted her. Thunder, fire, boiling blood; biting mouths and clawed hooks, all what maimed the person’s body over and over again, each time gaining a new shape, each time dying a little more.

Mason and Cassie helped each other to raise from the ground, avoiding the random attacks of the Young Crone, seeing with no chance to help how the person spent life after life with its hands over the Young Crone’s head.

“I… can’t… more” The Young Crone said between overwhelmed pauses, when the person fell from her back and rolled away over the ground. The Young Crone fell in knees, to next fall completely over the ground, unconscious.

Mason and Cassie looked each other in concern, and a few seconds passed before they could dare to approach their unexpected savior. The body was steaming like a boiling vegetable, motionless, unresponsive.

Slowly, the girls approached at the person, not losing attention to the Young Crone’s body not a single second. Cassie and Mason reached the person, when this looked that noticed their presence, and turned her head to see them.

“…Cass?” She spoke. That voice, clear as water, resounded in Cassie’s ears. In that precise moment Cassie fell over her knees and took the person’s shoulder. Mason could see the face properly still behind the steam, but had not the enough force to tell Cassie who she was. Anyway, it looked like Cassie had already discovered it.

“Mom!” Cassie yelled, embracing Mabel, still on the floor. Mabel raised her arm heavily around her daughter’s briefly, before to let her arm to fall. But Cassie was still hugging, her sobs lowered behind Mabel’s robes.

“I told you we were going to find you, didn’t I?” Mabel said in low voice.

“Yes” Cassie said between sniffs. “I can recall you did”. Cassie moved away from her, and held her hand with hers. “We’re going to get help, just hold on a moment”

But Mabel didn’t respond. Instead, her eyes rolled to look at Mason, and then to the far sight of her parallel self, still unconscious on the floor. Then she looked back at Mason, and smiled.

“Take care of your Mabel, we tend to be very irresponsible” She said. Her head turned to her daughter’s face again, and her smile got sad. “My baby…” She said a last time, as she exhaled her last breath and her eyes closed to never be opened again.

Out there, The Never Castle shook again, and the immense machineries turned bright crimson and their movements stuck. The engulfing darkness above the entire universe grew stronger, crawling around the remaining stars. The universe was now completely lost…

-

Connor sprouted from the ground, waving his hands furiously. He had to dig his way out from the engulfing floor, and he was not sure how long it took him, or where he was now. But a quick glance, and he knew exactly where they were. He stood over the ground, walking a few steps inside the dark hall where his Master used to communicate with his home world. At his right there was the crooked mirror he used to do it, silent, cold and clean.

_I have to stop The Young Crone. I hope there’s time…_

Suddenly, the crooked mirror began to flicker, as sounds more akin to screams began to be heard.

“Hel-… Bro-…” He heard to be said from the mirror. Connor turned for a moment to see the way out of the hall, and quickly turned back to the mirror, standing in front of him.

“Hello? Hello! There’s somebody there?” Connor asked, as the image cleared. Then he saw it.

The image was trembling, and the screams of large crowds were being heard from the distance, but there he was; The Slender Brother.

“Knight Connor?… Wha – What are you doing here? Where are my brothers?” The slender brother asked in a worried way. Connor remained quiet for a moment and turned away, so the slender brother concluded quickly what had happened to them. His clawed, crimson hand rose to the place where his mouth should be if his kind has a face.

“I fear it was the Young Crone” The slender brother said in a trembled voice.

“I’m sorry. I’m really rally sorry” Connor said, his voice trembling as well. “But I’ll save The Never Castle, just be patient. Your people will be…”

“It is too late Connor. That’s why I’m calling” The slender brother interrupted him.

“What?” Connor asked, holding the crooked mirror with both hands.

“The destabilization of out dimension had reached the Critical Shake. Right now our world is tearing apart. We’re finished, Knight Connor”. The slender brother spoke. A far explosion was heard, as the screams heightened in tone and despair.

“No… No! There must be something-“

“It is fine, Knight Connor. We all knew this could happen. End comes, for all the things. If my brothers had perished, that means this is the end of our species, and I welcome it with honor…”

“No! Don’t say that, don’t say THAT!!” Connor yelled. “We’ve come so far to this…”

“And we feel an immense gratitude for your efforts. But is too late. Restore your universe to its original state, go back home. Live, as much as we won’t anymore” The slender brother said.

The image flickered until it was only static, and the whole crooked mirror crumbled into fine dust between Connor’s hands. Connor fell on knees as his hands tangled lifeless over the ground. Golden tears sprouted from his eyes, as he looked at the roof in a vain search for home. That moment, the illumination turned into crimson, and the floor beneath his body began to shake.

“No… No!” He yelled. It was already too late to save anyone.

\- The Safe Heavens; The Never Castle. A few hours later…

Dipper and Mabel’s bodies lay over a bed of sticks and trunks. Their eyes were covered by white fabrics, and their hands joined together around a blue ribbon. Wendy looked at them a last time, with the flaring torchwood still in her hand, with an impotence glance. She had failed in save them, and now they were gone along the universe.

The sprites were standing around them, and raised their arms, as the old ritual established. Wendy looked at Connor – now in his true, glassy form –, with Cassie embraced in front of him, still crying; and then looked at The Doctor, standing along Aiden. The four of them nodding in agreement. Wendy’s face raged, and she threw the torch to the pyre. The fire extended around the bodies, and the flares heightened, illuminating their faces. The sprites bodies lit in fire, rising even more the fire, as the y whispered things that sounded like songs. The ritual was meant to represent the ascendance of the deceased souls to their next life, but everyone in there knew that the universe had no more life waiting to be born.

Not too far from there, over a bank in a wide sidewalk, Mason was putting bandages around Mabel’s tummy. She was looking constantly at her shoes, as quiet tears dropped from their eyes. Then looked at their mother, still sleeping over a bank at the other side of the sidewalk, and her face shifted to delusion.

“This is my fault” Mabel said quietly. “If I had destroyed the teleporter as I was instructed by the other Mabels, she could had never come here”

“You thought we needed it, this is not your fault” Mason said, clapping the edge of the bandage. Mabel turned to see her, in the moment Mason turned to see their mother. “ If I had been more careful Mom and Dad wouldn’t ever had discovered us, and you had never left the teleporter in home”

“I think that was more like a tag team, Bel-Bel” Mabel said, putting her hand over her shoulder. Mason put the hand over Mabel’s, rubbing it with her fingers.

“The Doctor said that your other self erased Mom’s memory. Maybe we have another chance” Mason said, trying to sound hopeful.

“What about them?” Mabel asked, looking at the funerary pyre. Mason looked at her sister, still trying to smile.

“Do you think you might feel troubled in a universe with two Aidens?”. Mabel tried to smile as well, figuring an answer.

“Is the least we can do” 

Several minutes later, once the pyre had turned off, everyone, including The Elder One, were seat in a round, inner square in which center, curiously, The Zodiac was imprinted. There were several banks all around the square, but they were sit close each other. The Doctor looked at the top of the Safe Heavens, where the rest of the sprites were still flying.

“This universe has not much time left. Hours, maybe. I can use the TARDIS to help all of you to escape, but that will instantly enlarge the rip that’s already destroying it. So… If all of you are agree, I’d like to wait a little more before to get out. For the sake of all the people we cannot save” The Doctor said.

“My people are bonded to the very fabric of this universe; we cannot get out” The Elder One replied, with their skin in the metallic tone of the bank in which they was sit. “But it is fine. We accept our fate, as our ancestors accepted theirs when they were sent to the unknown by the Three Kings”. Connor instantly raised his head, getting the familiarity of that statement.

“Hold on. My Master told me that his people sent shuttles to the Void but they were never heard of again. Which were the names of your kings?”

The Elder One pronounced the names of the kings using the Old Words, and Connor’s eyes widened. All this time, the hope his Master’s people was seeking so desperately was in front of them, and they foolishly twisted it beyond repair like a clay doll.

“Oh God…” Connor exclaimed, taking his hands over his mouth.

“Connor?” Cassie asked, sit along him.

“The sprites… are the descendants of my Master’s species” Connor replied, as he added another species to his mind list of things he just messed up.

“So, that’s it?” Aiden interrupted, waking up from his seat. “We’re gonna talk about how much we ruined everything and do nothing about?” He asked, getting enraged about the attitude of his new and old comrades.

“What else do you suggest, boy?” Ford asked. “The machinery is damaged beyond repair. Without Dipper and Mabel from this universe there’s no core to restore the timeline. Anything we _would _try to do will automatically dismantle this universe to dust…”

“What else…? Do you want I tell you?! Well, Mr. Pines, I will not just stay here to cry like a baby! I… I don’t know why I’m here. I certainly could had given my life for any other person who could do more for this than me, but guess what? I am here, standing, where zillions are dying” He shouted, getting enraged. “Mom, Dad,… God forgive me, even Leigh! All of them are out there, dying! And I don’t care that I have no idea how to fix it, but I’ll try. I prefer to die here trying to save someone than just sit confy and do nothing” He said, his eyes getting moisty and his face red in raged determination.

“Me too” Connor said, waking up from the bank. “I’ve been my entire life trying to find my worth, but my Master taught me that that doesn’t care at all. I stand with you”

“Me too” Wendy said, raising from her seat as well. “I mean, com’on. Two time lords, one… cosmic-whatever Connor is now, and the rest of us? If all of us could reach this hell of place, we can do this; won’t let my friends and family to die in vain”.

Cassie smiled at them, standing without saying a word as she took Connor’s hand, whipping her tears from her face. Mabel stood as well, looking for Mason sure that she was going to stand up as well. But instead, Mason was still there, but this time, with a sharp focus. 

“Wait a moment…” Mason interrupted, with an analytical glance.

_All of this seems to fitting. Cassie, the sprites, everyone here…_

_Axolotl told me I was the rook. A rook for what?_

_Rooks are for chess. Chess… Chess pieces… Chess pieces! All of us have a place here! Just look at Aiden! He just encouraged the most powerful being here just speaking! What if…_

“Chess” Mason said. Everyone looked at her, slightly confused.

“Chess?” Mabel asked.

“How you win chess? Doctor” Mason said quickly, pointing at The Doctor with a finger.

“What?…” The Doctor asked.

“Quickly, It’s important” She interrupted.

“Well, you get your pieces in the right place…”

“Exactly!” Mason interrupted again. “If I am a rook in Axolotl’s scheme, other people is metaphorical pieces too”

“Wait, what you know Axolotl?” Connor asked, worried and confused.

“Hush, don’t interrupt” Mason said, standing. “What is set in pieces that are people to be joined together that can save us…?”

“… The Zodiac?” Cassie interrupted.

“Weirdmageddon!” Aiden exclaimed with growing awe. “They were destined to defeat Bill with a circle like…”

“… Like the one is right here! In this floor!” Mason interrupted once more, pointing at the Zodiac imprinted over the ground.

“Don’t you think that…” Wendy began to speak.

“… Yes! Maybe we’re a Zodiac. Another of the Zodiac.”

“But we aren’t all of us Mason” Ford said, still not trusting the mind rail.

“But you told us that The Zodiac is not always bonded to specific people, what if… what it…?” Mason began to say, getting nervous for the amusement. Mabel looked at him with a hopeful smile.

“We have to try it” She said. Ford smiled as well, and nodded in approval.

“Wait a moment. Could someone explain what all of you are talking about?” The Doctor asked, rising from the bank.

“It is said that a cosmic being called The Axolotl once imprinted a great power in the heart of several universes. That’s the power my Master was looking for. But such power is locked to be used only by the members of a Zodiac, not meant to be extracted. We tried to set the timeline in a right position to use it to save his universe, but The Young Crone began to sabotage us” Connor answered. “If all of this is a scheme, the only we have to do is…”

“Find our place in it” Cassie said.

“Hmm, there are enough functional pieces of the machinery to make a last chronal transition. If that’s an enough powerful energy source, with the appropriate quantum locking, then…” The Doctor began to unpuzzle.

“What kind of locking?” Aiden asked.

“A remnant. Some of the precious shifts that is the closest possible to the core of said transitions”

“Mom wanted to kill Cassie. Why would she…” Mabel began to say, having joined to the theorization.

“Maybe she knew…” Mason said. “It could work!”

“No. There’s something that is still being left. We need a conductor to the machinery, a hook of some kind in which to focus the energy to connect it…”

Suddenly, Connor walked, and put his rod at the center of the wheel. “The other half of this is inside the heart of the machinery. I was what my Master used to access my parents’ timelines. He gave me this to return me to the time stream once the work is done but…”. He remained quiet for a moment, choosing his words. Then he smiled, and looked a Cassie “I remember, we can do this”

There was a tremor, and everyone got quiet. “Oh right, every one of you, find a place in the wheel!” Mason exclaimed. “Mabel, the Shooting Star!”

“Yes Ma’am!” Mabel exclaimed, making a military salute and walking towards her position.

“Ok, I’m the Pinetree… “She said, as she stood over her mark. “Grunkle Ford! The hand”

“Ok, let’s try this” Ford replied, standing over his mark.

“Oh right, I remember this” Wendy exclaimed, standing over the Ice Bag.

“Wait, this – Is this going to work?” Aiden asked. “For good?”

“Well, there will be maybe some little anomalies. Mismatched birthdays, new species, maybe the names of some cities will change or you’ll have more than a single moon…” The Doctor began to say. “But if she’s right this universe will live” The Doctor reassured with determination.

“Ok” Aiden nodded. “Where we stand?”

“You… Why do you have a shirt of the Tent of Telepathy?” Mabel asked, darting her eyes.

“Well, you – No, the other you; _my_ Mabel. She gifted it to me…” Aiden replied, smiling briefly.

“Right! It can work. Stand over the star” Mason ordered, so Aiden did it.

“Doctor, in your wardrobe you had a lot of clothes and stuff with question marks!” Cassie exclaimed.

“Oh for God’s sake…” The Doctor mustered, standing over the Question Mark. 

“May-May, there are still missing symbols” Mabel said, turning to Mason in worry.

“Ok ok, time for suggestions…. Cassie!” mason said, pointing at her.

“Me?”

“Yes! You practically walked your way here across all the wild things, you’ve proved yourself to be braver than any girl of your age could be, with no weapon or strength. You stand, like a survivor. Like…”

“A llama” Cassie said, standing over the Llama with a wide smile.

“Ok, now we need an erudite…”

“I am the keeper of all the stories of my people, and the peoples we know beyond our home” The Elder One said, standing over the Pair of Glasses.

“Oooo right, that can work” Mason said. “Mhmm now we need…”

“An idiot of a long run but also with a heart” Connor said, standing over the Crescent. “Just like Grunkle Stan”

“Ok. Now everyone, take hands” Mason said.

At the moment, everyone took the hands of the ones along them. At the moment that Connor took the hand of The Elder One, a powerful bright covered everyone. Strange winds around surrounded them, while, out of the Never Castle a dense amount of clouds began to form around.

The power flowed across everyone in a magnificent but fine sensation, ready to invoke the power, when Aiden looked at the empty space at his left side.

“Mabel, there’s one left” He said in a worried expression. Mabel and Mason looked each other, and then both looked at the far bank in which their mother was sleeping placidly…

_… A placid heart that was not meant to be broken, why am I feeling so guilty? There’s something I did, or is there something I’ll do?_

_Seas of tears and blood are weighting over my spine, and I don’t know why. I don’t want to cry; I don’t want them to cry._

_Sleeeep. I want so badly so sleeeeeeeeeep…_

“…Mom?” Ann heard. She opened her eyes, being Mason the first thing she saw. She smiled almost simediately, rising her arm to ru her daughter’s right cheek.

“Sweetheart, Hi. Why are you waking me up? It is too early” Ann said. That broke Mason’s heart, remembering perfectly why she was saying that. Ann’s mind was been rebooted to the morning she discovered them in Mason’s room, and as Mason as Mabel could recall it. Painful tears ran straight from Mason’s eyes, as she took her mother’s hand with hers and closed her eyes tightly. “Dipper, what happens? Are you ok?” Ann asked, getting worried. She sat over the bank, getting confused as she saw the strange environment in which they were, the dirty clothes she was wearing, and Mabel along Mason, with one of her favorite sweaters teared and bandages being visible by the hole.

“Mom, there’s… There’s someone important we have to tell you. And we want to…” Mason began to say, stopping to sniff, as Mabel approached equally tearful to take Mason’s free hand. “We love you so much, and we want to tell you. But we have to do something so important now, and you have to trust us, please” Mason said. “Please trust us…”

Ann suddenly stood, and the first thing she did was to hug tightly her daughters, who almost instantly began to cry.

“Shhh, shhh. It’s ok” Ann said. “I won’t lie, right now I have a lot of questions, but I trust you”

“Really?” Mabel asked, embracing her mother and her sister alike.

“Yes! I mean, this is not the first time I wake up in a strange site, If I tell you about my days in the hunting club in college…” She said, gasping a laugh.

“Moooom!” Both Pines twins yelled aloud, to just after laugh as well.

“I love you girls, I and your father love you with all our heart” Ann said. She wasn’t sure why her keen instincts weren’t making her to ask herself why they were in some kind of gigantic church falling apart, but she felt so relieved to have her babies between her hands that she assured herself that the details would wait. She unmade the hug, taking each one of the twins at one shoulder, and looked at them with pride. “Oh well, what we have to do?”

Mabel and Mason guided her to the square, where the rest of them were waiting, with their hands still joined together and shinning. At first, they looked totally freaked out, until Mason and Mabel nodded at them with relieved expressions. Connor cried in silence, remembering his Master’s words over and over again. What should he feel for her? He didn’t knew anymore. He had to let it go; he wanted to let it go.

“Take my hand, Mrs. Pines” Aiden said, as Mabel and Mason settled in positions and shined as well. Ann took Aiden’s hand, to just after take the hand of the strange being along her…

_Cassie opened her eyes, finding herself floating in misty, multicolored spaces, like clouds of ice cream. In front of her, Connor was floating as well. But he had the form he took the first time they met, as well the same clothes. He stared at her with a melancholic smile, without say a single word._

_“Where we are?” Cassie asked “We made it?”_

_“Not yet. I – I don’t know how to say this”. Cassie grew worried, perceiving the emotions of her brother, clear and clean._

_“Say what?” She asked. Connor looked away for a moment, to just after get closer and take her hands between his._

_“Cass… You know how one knits, right? Just as Mom used to do it”_

_“Yes, I never would forget it” She asked with serious tone._

_“Well. That’s what I’m doing with the timestream. String by string. But…”_

_“What?” Cassie asked sudden._

_“I am the needle. And the needle can’t be part of the fabric”. Cassie’s eyes widened in realization. He was not going back._

_“No, but you say…”_

_“that I could restore it. That’s what I’m doing. But the machinery is too damaged to make myself to be integrated again, and The Young Crone destroyed my only chance to go back.”_

_“No… No! You can’t do this again! You can’t just go away again!!” She began to yell, when she got aware that she remembered. “Why…?”_

_“Because that was in our common timestream” He replied. “You see?… I don’t want to hurt you again” He kept saying, as his voice trembled._

_“Will I remember you?” She asked._

_“No. No one will do. The residual memories could remain, but you’ll never can access them. No one will can”_

_“No… Please!”. Connor interrupted her by hugging him strongly._

_Both cried for a moment, as Cassie returned the hug, as strong as always had been able to do._

_“Promise me you’ll be nice with them! You’ll listen all their stories. And eat the veggies. And you’ll give them all the hugs I won’t be able to give” Connor said, with his voice getting more and more cracked._

_“I’ll squish them” She replied with a brief but powerful voice._

_“I love you, Cassie” He said, as everything around Cassie got brighter and white…_


	45. All the Things We're Going to Live

Mason opened her eyes, elated by the feeling of pure, distilled power flowing out of her body. That moment she got aware that Wendy’s hand disappeared between her fingers, and look around her. Wendy, Cassie, Aiden, and The Elder One, all of them dissipated in the air like foggy shadows, their residual steams flowing in direction of a ceaseless spark above them. Mabel watched around her, and she caught the moment in which the rest of the sprites disappeared as well into foggy disintegrations. The Doctor looked at Connor, still with his hands half raised, as he stared at the glowing spark above them with an apologetic glance. Then he looked at him, and smiled with sadness.

“I’m not going home” Connor said.

That moment, the shacking of the floor increased, as the walls of all the place began to crumble into giant debris. Far sounds of magnificent explosions began to be heard above them, as the remaining lamps of the ceiling went back to their white light, enlightening everything with more intensity. The five of them quickly glanced each other with nervous expressions; that was their signal to run.

“Oh right, everyone to the TARDIS!” The Doctor yelled.

“I know where it is” Connor said. He put two fingers inside his mouth and made a loud, continuous whistle. A series of stomping sounds began to be heard above them, until, several yards from them, the TARDIS fell straight over a tree of melting clocks, completely smashing it. Five mice gorgons were crawled over the TARDIS’s roof, looking at their master with worried hurry, roaring at him.

“Good, now run!” The Doctor yelled again.

“Come on Mom, we’re getting outa here” Mabel said, takin her mother’s hand.

Mason, Mabel, Ford and Ann ran across the gigantic rocks falling over the crumbling Safe Heavens, avoiding clouds of debris and falling trees of all sizes and shapes. Connor was flying over them, launching fiercely every piece of marble going in their acquaintances’ direction. He made a last look to the spark; this was growing bigger and bigger each moment.

“Hurry up!” Connor yelled.

Mason came first, opening the TARDIS’ doors, followed by Mabel, Ann, and The Doctor. The five remaining mice gorgons entered as well, crawling over the walls of the main room.

“Right, just don’t touch anything” The Doctor yelled at them, as he ran to the console. The TARDIS’s doors closed, as he pulled levers desperately, and the ram-like piece attached to his console began to sprout steam. “Now everyone, hold on to something!!!”

\- The Void (Dimension 0)

The glowing universe began to pulsate, moving unmeasurable amounts of steam and making several crazed metastructures to crash one against the other. The numerous crowds of eye-bats, goat demons, and stray ghidorahs, which had come to feast on the opulent light, flew away in terror, at the sense of the incoming explosion. No one, beast or man, had witnessed in whole eons what was about to happen.

The sphere lose a little of shine, and began to contort and collapse, gaining rubber, leather-like skin. The contortion ceased, and the compacting universe emitted reddened hums and high, steam-like sounds; cosmic frowning of a great emotion.

The sphere didn’t hold it anymore, and the brightest of all possible explosions threw their boiling light rays across every corner of the multiverse it could reach before to die in gaseous silence.

Then, coming out of the explosion like a speeding bullet, the tiny, blue box come out. Burning, enlightened, carrying a tail of ice and fire, it arose over the cataclysm, twirled in awed craziness.

The blue box rotated around itself for a brief moment, until the sticky light finally fell out. Then it stood still; quiet, between the clouds and the darkness, waiting for the response of their occupants…

“We did it?” Mabel asked, raising her head from the ground. The mice gorgons, still attached to the wires on the ceiling, turned their glances to see her, hissing in surprise.

“We’ll have to see it for ourselves” The Doctor replied, tangling from the console.

The Doctor arose from the floor, as Mason and Mabel helped their mother to get in feet and Ford made his best efforts to make his hands to let the coralline pillar go, and a mere second before to walk towards the door, he stopped to check the atmospheric shield.

“Phew, still functional” He said to himself, and walked towards the doors.

He opened both doors in a single, old fashioned movement, and his mouth opened in admiration.

“Come and see, my dear friends” The Doctor spoke the softest his old voice could allow him to do.

The Pines walked towards the door, and one by one they gasped with powerful smiles.

In front their eyes, there was what no one had ever seen in all the Eternity. An entire universe was reshaping itself, fiber by fiber, moment by moment; making the remaining clouds of gas to spin around it like a hungry newborn star. They were seeing, the rebirth of a universe. Mabel took Mason’s hand, and their fingers crossed together. Ford smiled with powerful nostalgia, remembering the terrifying, but anyway beautiful things the multiverse offered to ones the enough brave to dare to go for them and see them.

“What I am seeing?” Ann asked, not looking away for a single moment from the spectacle.

“Life. An entire dimension reshaping itself, healing, being reborn. This precise moment, billions of years of History are settling it selves in their timestream, countless lives coming back from an absolute demise to live again. Ladies and gentleman, I can assure you that no one had seen what we’re seeing since The Dawn of Reality” The Doctor replied.

“Wait, what’s that?” Mabel pointed.

“That’s a – Everyone move!” Ford yelled, and everyone ran from the doors.

A big bulk came thru the opened doors, crashing against the stairs way to the console. Soaked, boiling, the shapeless bulk convulsed with soft movements, until an arm came out, and then another, and then the rest of the being.

“Aaaaaaargh!…” He yelled aloud, stretching his arms and legs, to just after fall over the stairs over his back, breathing hard and continuous. He looked around his surroundings, at the awed faces of the occupants of the TARDIS.

The mice gorgons fell over the floor in a single jump and walked towards their master, growling an hissing with curiosity. Connor approached his right hand to the head of the nearest one, and caressed her head, passing his fingers across her multiple chirping head mice. “It is done” He said between deep breaths “but I guess you already know that”. He looked around him again, and the Doctor was not there.

“I fear I have new for us, crew” The Doctor said, checking the console.

“What happens?” Mason asked.

“The dimensional node is charred. We can make a few landings more, but we have not much time to do them”. There was a moment of silence, in which Mason and Mabel looked each other, and then at their mother. Ford looked at them as well, and Mason’s and his glance crossed. He nodded at her, and then he walked towards the console.

“I’ll give you our coordinates” Ford said. “I am Ford, Mason’s great-uncle” He said, extending his hand. “I think we’ve not had time to introduce us”

“Certainly not. I am…” he began to reply, when he thought for a moment how he should respond. This time, he had saved lives instead of having to take them. This time, he could be again who he was “… The Doctor. Nice to meet you”

“Doctor who?” Ford asked.

“For now, the one who saves lives”

Mason and Mabel looked at their mother; it was time to make things right this time.

“Mom” Mason said.

“There’s something we have to talk with you” Mabel said just after, still taking her sister’s hand….

\- Piedmont, California. Planet Earth, Local Cluster. Universe 47’\

The TARDIS was parked at the entrance of the sidewalk, in front the way to the Pine’s house. Ann was in the stairs of the entrance, drinking her coffee cup in quick, short sips, looking at the white concrete floor with reddened eyes. A grey blanked covered her, the one she used when she and Aaron were out in the backyard in the family’s night roasts. She was not sure which thing was weighting more in her consciousness of all she had done and forgotten, and she had no greater clue to order her ideas than the fact that she was again at home with his beloved husband, knowing their daughters were going to be fine no matter what.

“Hi sweetheart” She heart from behind. She turned to see his husband holding his personal cup that read ‘#1 Dad’ between his strong hands.

“Hi” She replied, sharp but gentle.

“Do you mind if I sit with you a while?” He asked friendly.

“Sit, the weather is good out here” She replied.

Aaron sat along her wife, and began to give short sips as well. Ann wanted to say something, but she hadn’t the least idea of how to begin with. He knew as well her forgotten affairs in the outer realms of the Reality, and, against all rational thought, he kept respectful and affable, as he always had been. Instead, he was worried.

“How are you?” He mustered.

“How do you believe?” She asked in low, friendly tune. “Our daughters are in this kind of incestuous relationship, I am the recipient of a cosmic power, I almost destroy an entire dimension, I forget something? Oh true. I killed millions with my actions” She said, as she recharged her head over the cup’s border in contained frustration. She felt his hand over her back, and looked back at him.

“Tired” He said in low tune.

“Yep, some of that is tiredness” Ann said. “But… Why I am not in a jail of whatever? Or even… It is really so easy just let me go along with that? Why I’m not being punished?!” She asked, her rage growing. “My memories were erased… But I still remember the feelings. I wanted to _kill them,_ Aaron. I wanted to kill our babies… And why the hell can you just go along with it too?! I mean, this is cosmic stuff! Super, blazingly red hot sci-fi craziness! Are you crazy?! Am I crazy? Goddammit!!” She yelled, throwing her cup away. The cup crashed with the floor, breaking into pieces which flew in every direction inside the front garden. Her breath increased, as the tears ran over her face and she covered her face with her hands. “I am a monster Aaron! An evil, wicked monster!!!”

Suddenly, she fell his arms covering her, and a certain part of that inner rage just fade away. Thus, with the rage turned off, her guilt came ashore. Then she allowed herself to cry behind her hands.

“I remember I signed certain contract with you that said that I’m your everlasting companion. This time had taught me to accept the unacceptable and forgive the unforgiveable. And… well, Mason has been sending me many e-mails with pictures of monsters”. Ann gasped a laugh and took his hands out of her face, turning her head to see the TARDIS.

“Do you think they’ll forgive me?”

“I really doubt they were mad at you in first place. Ann I… I sorry. I thought you just needed time to process it, and I didn’t even notice you were gone until you knocked the door…”

Ann turned her whole body to face her husband, and took his face between her hands, kissing him hardly. A moment after, their lips got apart, Ann rubbing his face with her thumbs.

“My love. I don’t remember how bad I endured what happened with our daughters but…” She said to just after gasp another laugh. “I’m sure I didn’t make you easy to see. I want to do things right, do what I have to do this time”

Then, they joined their foreheads, suspiring deeply. “We’re gonna make it” Aaron said gently.

They heard the sudden creak of the doors, and looked at the door. Ford came out, and closed the door behind him, standing in the little space between the door and the stairs.

“Well, they’re coming, I recommend you to make space for them” Ford said.

“Thank you Ford” Aaron said to him.

“It’s one’s work to take care of the family. I… If you want to visit us someday…” He began to say.

“We’ll be glad” Ann said.

“Ehmm, Ann. I talked with Connor. He… He thinks the best is to you have the power inside you. Don’t worry, it will be disabled as long as you don’t remember anything of what you did, your memories are blocked. Just… maybe some day we could need it, you know”

“I accept it. Thank you” Ann replied. Ford inhaled hard and clapped his hands, raising his head in better aims.

“Well! Time to go. I forgot my cellphone in home and Stan will begin to worry about us”. Ann and Aaron gave him space so he could walk to the TARDIS. Once he got inside, the door behind them opened. They looked behind, and their daughters were standing there, with some bags of things tangling from their shoulders. Ann and Aaron raised, Ann taking her blanket over her arms.

“It is time to go. Work at Gravity Falls never ends” Mason said in a singing tone.

“Text us when you arrive” Aaron said. There was a moment of silence, but not an uncomfortable one. Warm glances crossed unseen paths, and with no warning, the Pines family shared the strongest, warmest and meaningful hug they could’ve ever remember that moment.

“We love you, no matter what, do you hear me?” Ann said in an urging tone.

“We love you too” Mabel replied as well.

The embrace endured some time, until all of them had the will to let themselves to go. Then, having said everything they had to say, and forgiving everything they had to forgive, the Pines twins said goodbye to their parents with their own hugs included, and walked towards the TARDIS, disappearing between its doors. Their parents saw the TARDIS oscillate its presence until it vanished in middle air. They knew now, that no matter what could happen in the future, their daughters were going to be fine, having each other in an odd, but strong way…

-

The TARDIS’s crew heard the landing, in the classic stomping sound, as The Doctor maneuvered some sets of controls in the console, in his usual, methodical way.

“It is done. Gravity Falls. You can go out” The Doctor said.

“Don’t you want to come with us? I’m sure Stanley and the girls will want to say thank you to the man who just saved us from an exploding universe” Ford suggested in a friendly way.

“Maybe in other occasion; there’s still the problem of where let the mice gorgons, you know; things to do, places where to go, the usual”. Connor looked at the twins, and after a brief taking of chin, he walked towards them.

“What if we let them here?” He suggested enthusiastically.

“Here, in Gravity Falls? Mason asked, a little taken out of guard.

“Yes! I mean,… They have no place where to go. The rest of them… they died trying to save the Never Castle. I want to give them a place where to begin again, free”

“Just like us” Mabel said, taking her sister’s hand. Mason buffed aloud, to just after look at Ford.

“What do you think, Grunkle Ford?” Mason asked with hopeful tone. Ford took one of his hands to his face for a moment, rubbing his eyes with his fingers.

“Oh what the heck? A few monsters more won’t be any trouble. At least we know they won’t harm anyone if is not necessary”

So Connor, his mice gorgons, Mason and Ford got out of the TARDIS, which was giving its face to the forest. Connor approached to his creations, and looked at them with an apologetic glance. The mice gorgons looked each other with a little of confusion, but, being creatures that already communicated each other with their eyes, they knew what their master wanted to say. So, each one, one after the next one, bowed a last time to their creator, and walked quickly towards the forest, losing between the trees. Connor smiled, knowing that they were going to be very happy there. Suddenly Mason looked around everywhere.

“Where’s Mabel?”

“I’m here May-May!” Mabel shouted in awe, from the TARDIS’s entrance, sustaining each door with one hand.

“What are you doing there?” Mason asked with playful tone. Mabel scratched her nape for a moment, trying to find the words.

“Well, this is sorta time machine right? I was thinking, if you want… Maybe… you know”

“Mabel, you lost me” Mason said in confusion.

“You… you could see McGucket one last time” Mabel replied with some fear to hurt her sister. Mabel looked away into the woods with a confuse expression of relief. She already was better about the topic, having made amends with her errors and mistakes… But how could she waste a chance like that?

Mason looked back at Mabel, and nodded in approval. Then Mabel turned to see The Doctor, still in the console.

“Can we?” Mabel asked.

“I guess one trip more won’t hurt anyone; we came here from Piedmont without incidents anyway” The Doctor appointed. Mabel smiled, and invited her sister to pass…

\- Norwest Manor. Gravity Falls, Oregon. Planet Earth, Local Cluster. Universe 47’\, around a year ago…

The sky above Gravity Falls was cloudy and sad, nothing to suggest someone could go outside and spend some quality time between family and friends, but the odd circumstances had never stopped Fiddleford H. McGucket from enjoy of life.

Fiddleford was sit over one chair in front of one of the several tables with umbrellas stuck in them, scattered around the immense backyard of the manor, with a can of root bear in his hand and scratching his long beard with the other. Ford, Tate and his girlfriend were in the kitchen with some servants, preparing the food for a picnic they were planning the whole month.

Fiddleford had no doubt about the decaying of his own health, a remnant of his abuse of the memory gun. Every time was more difficult to walk or eat, or even sleep. So, he was sure why his own son, a man whit a wide respect about the private time of people, was spending so much time with him lately, and why Ford seemed to be hiding him something, getting confusingly unclear when he asked him about the twins. But he thought it was fine; after all, the last thing they could want was to worry the Pines twins with dreadful news; they were already in the way to a great change in their lives; a tragedy could wait. 

So he just sat more comfortably in his chair as he closed his eyes, giving long sips to his can and resting his hand over his stomach… Then he opened one eye; they had heard something strange.

The sound disappeared as soon as he heard it, but he remembered it sounded a quite like a whispering. Maybe whatever thing could be that doesn’t bother his rest… Then he heard steps over the grass approaching at his left side, an opened his eyes, turning his head to see. To his surprise, it was Mason, who looked at him with a strange smile. A very strange smile; the kind of smiles that seem sad at the same time. But anyway, he was happy to see her. He arose his back from the chair, left his can on the table and took his cane, lifting himself from the chair. His slow, but aimed passing over the grass reflected his frustration of not can make his beloved jumping and hamboning, but at the same time his joy to see Mason. They met in middle of the grass and hugged each other, Mason bending down to embrace him more properly. Fiddleford distinguished certain melancholy in that hug, but he quickly dismissed to the nostalgia of their old adventures.

“Dipper!! How long no see you!” He exclaimed with full joy. “Come with me, I have root beer cans for all my friends!” He said before to give her time to answer.

Mason followed him to the table, where he kindly offered a can of the table and a chair to sit. Without say a word, Mason sat and took a can, opening it with strange softness. Immediately, Fiddleford noticed Mabel’s absence.

“Where’s Mabel? Is she with Ford?” He asked, looking around everywhere. “Don’ tell me she’s going to jump behind me, It’s a little too late for my birthday… Dipper, are you ok?” Fiddleford asked. Mason, still with the can in her hands, hadn’t given a single sip; her face was still smiling with sadness.

“Ahm… Sorry, sorry. It’s just we’ve dealing with some stuff lately and… we’re here in town just checking something quick” Mason answered, passing a hand over her forehead. “But we’re fine now! And I decided to make you a visit before… before to go back into business, you know” 

“Glad you can have time to visit you ol’ pal McGucket! Can’ wait to the summer! I’ve designing some dazzlingous mechathings I want you to see, you’ll love them!!” He said in a merry tone. Mason was quiet a moment; not too long, but the enough to notice she was not doing well at all.

“I can’t wait until summer too!” Mason said before Fiddleford could ask, taking a short sip to her can. “Multibear says he’s going to give us a tour across the entire cave system, we’re already buying lanterns”

“Hah! I hope them to be the good ones! First time Ford and I were there he brought an ol’ piece of junk!” Fiddleford said aloud, laughing hard. Mason remembered the anecdote, so she laughed as well with similar aims. But quickly the laughs ceased, and just after Fiddleford heard a noisy phone alarm. Mason took her cellphone out of her pocket, and gave it a quick look.

“Oh dang, I have to go, McGucket. But I’m glad for the chance! I’ll call you when we’re back here if Grunkle Ford forgets to do it again” Mason said, lifting from the table with the can in her hand.

“Sure! Now I have a can to punch him if he forgets it!” Fiddleford said joyful, waving his cane. Mason walked a few steps away, but suddenly she turned around, now walking backwards.

“Until next summer” Mason said with a wide smile. Now she was really happy, at least for his eyes.

“See ya next summer Dipper!” McGucket yelled as she turned back and walked away. He breathed deeply, being very happy for the visit, and letting his can in the table, he recharged in his chair, closing his eyes and resting his hands over his stomach with a wide smile.

“Fiddleford!” it was heard from the distance. It was Ford, who walked towards the table in which Fiddleford was. He reached the table, being a little confused at see only him in there.

“Fiddleford there was someone else here? I heard voices and I came to…” Ford began to said, when he stopped sudden. Fiddleford’s body was motionless, not even being noticed the oscillation his chest should have due the breathing, and his face was a little paler than it should. Quickly, Ford approached and took his arm to check his pulse… And he felt nothing. His lips trembled and his eyes got moisty, as he turned his head to the entrance of the backyard still with his friend’s hand between his own.

“Tateeeee!!!!!” It was heard coming from the backyard…

Mabel was looking at the TARDIS’s doors with painful expectation, walking from a little spot to the next and back to the same, when she saw how the doors opened. Mason got in, with the head lowered, so Mabel could not see her face. But then she raised her, and showed how broken she was. Mabel ran instantly to her sister and wrapped her between her arms. Mason instantly returned the embrace and began to sob, being muted by the fabric of Mabel’s sweater.

“He’s gone” She said between her continuous sobs, as they heard the sounds of the TARDIS going back to their place of time.

“It’s ok May-May. He left in peace” Mabel answered, resting her chin in her shoulder.

\- Gravity Falls, Oregon. Planet Earth, Local Cluster. Universe 47’\, Present.

The Pines twins were in front of the TARDIS, as The Doctor was saying them goodbye, half way through the doors.

“Thank you, Doctor. You took care of this brave, irresponsible girl” Mabel said, squishing Mason’s shoulders with her arm and giving her a fast kiss in her cheek.

“It was a pleasure to help you. If someone else remembers our adventure sure there will be songs talking about us” The Doctor answered.

“Do you think we’ll meet again?” Mason asked.

“Well, everything is possible. Maybe I’ll pass here next time I come through the multiverse” The Doctor appointed with humor.

“Until then” Mason said.

“Until then” The Doctor repeated, disappearing behind the doors.

The TARDIS dematerialized, as Mason and Mabel waved their hands at it to say goodbye a last time, until it completely vanished.

“Sooooo… How long you had permission to be out of college?” Mason asked.

“Weeeell I had no way to know how deathly things were goin’ to be so I requested likeeeee… two weeks?” Mabel replied, winking in a conspiring way.

“That’s my sis-friend” Mason replied, kissing her. Then the sisters embraced walked towards the Mystery Shack, thinking in how they were going to spend their time together.

“Hey, don’t steal my names. Those are Mabel Names; trademark and all”…

\- The Void (Dimension 0)

The Doctor moved the dials of the TARDIS console and a roaring sound echoed across the main room.

“What we’re doing here?” Connor asked.

“When I landed in your universe I accidentally took with me a stowaway. I’m releasing it”. The sound ceased, and The Doctor looked at Connor. “Done, now where do you want I take you? I’m sure you already had thought about”

“In fact…” Connor began to say, looking at the TARDIS’s doors “I think I get down here”

“Here?” The Doctor asked in disbelief. “Boy, this is the nothingness; the wasteland between realities. Not a place where one could want to live”

“The explosion of the restoration of my universe had to be seen in every corner of the near multiverse. That surely will attract more unwanted visitors, and my family lives there. I want to protect them”

“I understand” The Doctor said. Connor walked towards the doors, and opened them. In front of him there was his new home, an endless, unescapable home. Then he turned to see him.

“Aiden remembers… I you want to make him a visit someday” Connor said. “I needed someone to warm me if something happens inside, but I hope that day never comes”. Connor turned back to the vastness that was lying in front of him.

“Good luck, Connor” The Doctor said.

“Good luck, Doctor” Connor said back, to just after fly away thru the doors, never to be seen again.

The TARDIS’s doors closed, and The Doctor looked at the controls, sighing aloud.

“Maybe someday I’ll be The Doctor again…” He said to himself, and he pulled the lever. The time rotor moved, and the ram-like piece fell over the ground, so The Doctor knew that he was coming back to his universe. He was going back, to the Time War…

-

_Brshlosihosrishos,rhdls… Ybtxobc QebCxipbHfkd, xkaefp Abxqeplkd lcqeb QeobbPqlojp…_

“Aaaaaaahhh!!!!” Aiden screamed, raising his back from the bed in a sudden, frightened maneuver. His forehead was cold sweated and his arms shaky, evidences of his frightened state. His breathing was intense, and his eyes wide opened scanned his immediate surroundings. A oak-themed blanked over his body, a few posters in the walls, and the same lavender tone of the walls which he hated but felt comfort to see after a hard day. Undeniably, he was in his room. The sun shinned brightly from the white-framed windows, so he knew it was morning.

“My room… I am back in my room!” Aiden said to himself as he began to laugh in relief, to just after raise the blanket over him to see.

“Naked… I am naked!” He said himself again, laughing harder in pure, odd joy.

“Hold on, really am I in…” He asked himself, taking his cellphone, which he put aside his pillow just as he remembered. His eyes darted, as he looked around him.

“The morning after the prom?” He asked himself, when he saw his suit in the floor.

_Oh right, It’s understandable, the universe just born again. Some little reboot won’t kill anyone…_

Then his eyes looked the screen of his cellphone again, and his eyes widened.

“Oh sh*t! I’m late!” He yelled, jumping from the bed in a well-planned movement…

Everyone around the day noticed the strange behavior that Aiden Zimmerman was having that day, nothing like a guy just dropped by his long-term girlfriend the last night should have at all. He looked strangely happy and filled in enthusiasm, much for the dismay of his friends, the teachers (which had been told by Aiden’s friends), and above all, Mabel. She could just not stop to pay attention to his behavior. Even when he was avoiding talking with her during their common classes, that avoiding was nothing like she could’ve expected. It was courteous, not remorseful, and even promising. He was even wearing the orange shirt of The Tent of Telepathy she gave him a time ago. He looked more like the guy he was before they began to date and more like the Aiden he was when they were just friends.

Anyway, it looked like a good thing to her, because every person who could have logically been angry at her or have acted bad towards her wasn’t paying her any attention, most probably because they had no idea of how to react or what to say. Out of nothing, Aiden Zimmerman had passed from be an emotional disaster the previous night to a full restored person. And that was freaking her out.

Finally, the rest time came, and Mabel felt the hurry to run to the dinner room where she and Dipper had planned to meet, because they were sure as heck that she was going to have a hard day. But she resisted, with all her strength. Instead, she slipped between her classmates out of the classroom straight to the corridors, hugging her backpack, when a few steps into the corridor she heard him calling for her. Her head arose in fright, and she slowly turned to face him. Maybe he was going to explode, or rub in her face the fact he was good now and didn’t wanted to see her anymore, all logical conclusions to think. But when she finally faced him, he was as happy and relieved as he had been the whole day. Even he looked worried about her, and why the heck should he to be worried about her?!

“Aiden-Raven!” Mabel exclaimed in a pretended joy that surely seemed epically awkward. “How are you doing?”

“Pretty good Mabes, I feel like…” He began to say in a soft tone before to stop to think in how he should express himself, rolling his eyes in some curious directions “reborn!” he exclaimed in his accustomed joy of that day.

“Really – I mean, what I…”

“Really. Completely for sure at all” Aiden interrupted her. She couldn’t deny the sincerity of his voice (Aiden Zimmerman was not the kind of guy who hides his emotions so easily), but it made no absolute sense, and she couldn’t stop from notice it. She looked away for a moment, taking some of her hair between her fingers.

“Aiden, I – I want to tell – Urghh!” She despaired, not finding the words to say it, “Aiden I’m sorry for drop you in middle prom and I know you probably feel super bad inside you but you suddenly found out how to hide it and now I’m super-sure you don’t understand a single word I’m saying because now I’m talking superfast just as Dipper does when he’s freaked out and that’s because I’m freaked out too…”

Mabel’s crazed tirade suddenly stopped when he took her between his arms. Mabel felt like she was entering into the twilightest of the twilight zones; he was hugging her. And not just hugging her with no care; it was the kind of hugs one gives someone you love and you believed just a moment ago that that person was dead (A knowledge earned by all the times she or Dipper were in danger).

“I’m happy you’re fine” Aiden said, inhaling hard. Mabel returned the hug automatically, her eyes wide opened.

“Sooo, aren’t you mad at me?” Mabel asked, frowning in worry.

“Nop, I’m not mad at you” Aiden answered, as he let Mabel’s body go and her arms fell lifeless aside her confused persona. “In fact… I have something to tell you” He said, scratching his nap for a moment. “And’s not an easy thing to say because I know you’ll instantly freak out. So, please, don’t freak out. I’ll tell you because I want to show you I am still your friend, no matter what happened between us” He said in a stern tone. “And I feel that you’ll need some help with that at some point, so… I’ll be there!” He concluded with determined awe. Mabel frowned with quite of worry, and she didn’t even know where that worry was coming from.

“You’ll be there for what?” Mabel asked with growing seriousness. Aiden looked around him, and got a little closer, so Mabel could hear clearer when he, in a very low tone, dropped the bomb.

“I… I know what’s between you and Dipper”. Mabel heard an entire crystal shop smashed at the floor when he said those words, but the last strings of her losing sanity, the ones of a good liar, tried to keep her the most casual possible. She chuckled a little and rolled her eyes around every possible direction, as she forced the least credible of the smiles, the smile one makes when’s undeniably busted.

“Whaaaaat are you talking about” She asked nervously, trying futilely to keep an already awful façade. Aiden rolled his eyes around him again, and got a little more closer.

“You know, the… boyfriend-girlfriend business”. As he got apart, Mabel heard an entire world of glass suddenly crash in her mind. Much like her brother used to do (And she was very aware of that in that precise moment) She began to hyperventilate, giving a pair of backward steps.

“Oh gosh… oh gosh o gosh oh gosh!!” Mabel began to say continuously, smashing her backpack against her chest.

“Mabel, Mabel, Mabel! Breaaaaath, breath” Aden said, putting his hands over her shoulders. “Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale”

“Ok, ok ok, I breath. Iiiii breath…” Mabel replied, mimicking his instructions, until she felt authentically calmed down.

“Ok, good now?” Aiden asked.

“How… how did you…?” She tried to ask.

“Believe me, you don’t need to know it. And… I’m totally ok with that. I – I had this kinda crazy night and I’ve had a lot to think about important stuff and meaning of so many things and… If you need some help with whatever could occur, I’ll be there. I promise”. His words were sincere, painfully sincere, as if he had endured a certain crazy thing, a test he had passed. Mabel smiled at him with a sad glance, and launched herself towards him, hugging him tightly. Aiden returned the hug with his now warm vibes; he had recovered his friend, and was not going to let her down.

“I guess you had your own sci-fied cray-cry situation, I’m right?” Mabel asked, to gasp a chuckle just after.

“Yes, and’s the only I can say” He answered.

“It’s ok. I know how it works” She said, smiling with relief. “I really don’t have the least idea of how I’m going to tell Dipper”

“Let me that; I’m sure there are some things I can explain better to calm him down”

“You’ll need a straitjacket, my friend” She replied, and both laughed. Mabel had recovered her friend, who was now passing to be a reliable ally, to one of the biggest quests of her life…

-

For now, the Multiverse was now safe. The universes were dancing, and their creatures delighting.

Happiness was a thing meant to be…

And all the things their inhabitants were going to live…

Lighthearted, repaired, unharmed, the ages of History, with their pain and their light are going to happen, and whoever was meant to be there, was meant to live.

At least, until the fearsome presences behond the realms of the Sanity were willing to show its presence once again…

_THE END…?_


End file.
